〜と考えている at the end of a sentence

Question

An example sentence from NHK Easy (source)

政府は、日本に住む人みんなにマイナンバーカードを作って、健康保険証の登録をしてもらいたいと考えています。

Reading NHK Easy, I frequently see sentences ending in 〜と考えています when it's clear that it's not meant to say "Somebody is thinking about ~". I figure this is a form of hedging, like how you're not supposed to say "たけしさんはケーキがほしいです" but instead "たけしさんはケーキをほしがっています".

If my assumption is correct, what is the significance of using 考える for this purpose? How is it different from using がる or と言う or some other way of reporting?

Answer 1

From an English perspective, ～たいと考えています may seem redundant, but this is perfectly natural in Japanese. ～たいです or ～欲しいです are actually unrefined sentence endings, and they are usually avoided in proper news articles and such. Instead of です, people very commonly add と思っています, と言っています or と考えています after たい/欲しい.

For example, something like 私は車が欲しいです is polite and natural enough in conversations and not-so-formal business exchanges, but in very formal writings, you should say 私は車が欲しいと思っています or 私は車が欲しいと考えております, etc. Likewise, you will almost never hear a sentence like 政府は登録をしてもらいたいです in news broadcast.

When you translate this into English, you can just use "want".

政府は、日本に住む人みんなにマイナンバーカードを作って、健康保険証の登録をしてもらいたいと考えています。
The government wants everyone living in Japan to create a My Number card and register for the health insurance function.

(Just to be sure, the subject of 考えています is 政府 at the beginning of the sentence, and the 政府 can safely "say" or "think" something just as White House can.)

Answer 2

As to why it doesn't say -たいと言っています nor -たがっています, 言っています sounds more like quoting so you wouldn't want to use it when you are summarizing, paraphrasing or adding your own analysis. (This distinction is kind of blurry, though.) たがっています sounds more like you are personifying the government with emotion and preferences, so it's less appropriate in neutral reporting. 考えています is also personifying but to a lesser extent, I think.