After several months of equivocating, Prime Minister Taro Aso finally came out and declared March 2 he will accept his portion of the controversial ¥2 trillion cash handout, contradicting his previous position that he wouldn't take the cash.

"I will accept the cash handout," Aso told reporters. "I will use it immediately to stimulate consumption."

Aso said last year he would not take the cash and went as far as branding rich people who accepted it as "mean-spirited." Aso, the grandson of the late Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, is an heir to a major coal mining and cement business in Fukuoka Prefecture.

He has been accused of constantly flip-flopping over policies and contradicting himself. But March 2 he denied such criticism, stressing the objective of the cash handout scheme has shifted from supporting people's livelihoods to expanding domestic demand through consumption.