After several months of equivocating, Prime Minister Taro Aso finally came out and declared Monday evening 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.