Japan’s population is dropping, but you probably wouldn’t guess it from walking around Tokyo. Japan’s capital feels as bustlingly crowded as ever as an increasing proportion of the country’s population concentrates there.
So as Tokyo gets more and more crowded, smaller regional communities are quickly shrinking, with fewer local births followed by a lot of those kids moving away to Tokyo when they grow up. The Japanese government would like to see the population more evenly distributed, though, and according to a report from news service Kyodo, their newest plan is to pay 600,000 yen to women if they move away from Tokyo and get married to a guy living in a less populous part of Japan.
Bachelorettes either living in Tokyo’s 23 central wards or commuting to workplaces within them would be eligible for the payment. The list of applicable cities/regions to move to has yet to be set, but since the goal is to bolster the residency numbers for communities where the possibility of fading away is a concern, odds are cities that are smaller than Tokyo but still huge in their own right, such as Osaka, won’t be included, and instead the focus will be on more rural communities, or at least smaller regional hub cities.
This wouldn’t be the first time for the Japanese government to offer a fat stack of yen to try to encourage people to move away from Tokyo. Currently, grants of up to 600,000 yen for individuals, or 1 million yen for families, are available for Tokyo’s 23-ward residents or commuters who relocate to designated municipalities, as long as they secure local employment, continue their current job through telecommuting, or start a new business in their new home.
However, women would not have to secure or even look for work to be eligible for the move-away-from-Tokyo-to-get-married grant, Kyodo says, citing an unnamed source involved with the project planning. and that it would be separate from the 600,000-yen payment, so that a woman who moves away from Tokyo both to get married and to work would ostensibly be able to collect both sums.
Kyodo’s report also acknowledges that gender-locking the grant to women could cause a public backlash, and one could possibly argue that offering money only to women is an indirect way of pushing women out of the capital and/or trapping men within it. On the other hand, the designers of the proposal might feel, or have data showing, that women born in rural communities are especially likely to move away in pursuit of educational/professional opportunities they don’t have in their hometowns, especially if the local economy is skewed towards predominantly male-dominated industries such as agriculture and manufacturing, and thus feel that those rural communities need an influx of Tokyo ladies to sufficiently repopulate.
According to Kyodo’s source, the Cabinet Secretariat plans to include funds for the program in budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which begins next spring.
Sources: Kyodo, Financial Field
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Japanese government to start giving newlywed couples a wedding gift of 600,000 yen
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-- Japanese government may soon start bribing people three million yen to move out of Tokyo
© SoraNews24
19 Comments
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SDCA
So, can you get married to a nice man in rural Japan whilst telling your boss you'll need to work remotely for a bit, collect your 1,200,000 yen, and move back to Tokyo?
Jay
The problem is because there are too many companies and well-paying jobs in Tokyo... People move there because that is where the work is...
The solution to the problem would be to incentivize companies to move into smaller cities in areas like Nagoya, Himeji, Ibaraki, Gunma, etc.
Incentivize these companies with tax breaks and or tax penalties. People will go where there is work.... if that's the case then MOVE where the work is..
virusrex
Even taking into account only the costs of moving out that would consume most of the money (or end up in the red) so it is extremely unlikely it will convince anybody that was not already planning to do it anyway.
This may help tilt the balance to some undecided, but is more likely that it will be taken as a bonus by people that were already moving out for other reasons, so the potential effect would be extremely small. This is an example where a problem that requires hugely complicated, long-term solutions is bieng dealt with simple measures without a real effect, the people in charge can say they are doing something even when it is extremely unlikely the actions would have a positive effect.
Moonraker
Some enterprising bureaucrats (perhaps an oxymoron) have seen a gap in the government largesse market. They can create another department disbursing long-suffering taxpayers' money in the name of population redistribution. There will be no criteria for success, as ever, and it will not succeed anyway, but the department will employ a few more and successfully get a budget, which will never be relinquished, and expand the reach of bureaucracy. That's how it works.
Moonraker
Maybe Japan should study the UK. There the countryside is a desirable place for the rich to have a second home and even to live, at least in the south of England, especially in the more twee (is tweer a word?) villages. At the local pub (admittedly, if it still exists) you will be as likely to meet a relocated professional as the village idiot. They play at being the local squire in their "Rose Cottage", all while driving a German car. But, comedic as it is, it is favourable to the Japanese situation of definitely no pub and no desirability; only suspicious locals and decay.
finally rich
"Bustling crowded" with very young people coming from all over the country you'd say.
And who's to blame here? Probably J-tv for rubbing Tokyo to our faces 24h as if it was the only city in Japan.
47 capitals, whole new universes to explore and do whatever you want anytime, you can wake up in the morning and decide if you want to cycle, drive or take one of the futuristic trams to work as the whole city is so pleasant, clean, cool and the sidewalks are so spacious.
Central Tokyo streets are super crowded specially on weekends, but only with people in their 10s～30s. Super sad most foreigners have absolutely no idea of the pleasant, beautiful, polite, normal Japan as they come to the country without ever living outside of Kanto area.
Last week I was working somewhere just 3h from here, in a place where people give you a little bow simply for standing next to you to pack their groceries, the whole day is filled with these little polite interactions.
kohakuebisu
Nice headline, containing as much content as the story.
factchecker
Whatever they were on when they dreamt up this insane idea, make mine a double.
Mr Kipling
These funds will only be taken by those who have already decided to move. They are not enough to make a difference.
Jim
600,000¥ for a lifetime of stress, depression, lack of freedom and agony!
600,000¥ is like a 6 months bonus for many office workers in Tokyo so why give up that!
The process of filling up paperwork and trying to claim that 600,000¥ if you do decide to take the offer from the Government will be excruciating, and a waste of time to the point that you’ll give up trying to claim it!
Most ( not all ) of the women in Tokyo have accustomed themselves to a lifestyle which only Tokyo can offer them ( going out, conveniently shopping in malls, branded goods, cosmetics, hair and beauty salons, dining, cafe hangouts, easy accessibility of locations using trains as almost everyplace is connected in Tokyo etc ), so to give up all that so a mere 600,000¥ is just unrealistic!
Jennie
I don’t know if I should laugh or cry for the ladies here…
finally rich
The money is intended for people moving out of Tokyo, not the other way around
Cephus
"The problem is because there are too many companies and well-paying jobs in Tokyo... People move there because that is where the work is...
The solution to the problem would be to incentivize companies to move into smaller cities in areas like Nagoya, Himeji, Ibaraki, Gunma, etc.
Incentivize these companies with tax breaks and or tax penalties. People will go where there is work.... if that's the case then MOVE where the work is"@Jay
That's a brilliant idea, moreover, those willing to move into small towns, they should have income tax break to encourage them raise families in those towns.
リッチ
Sexism alive and well in Japan.
Estatesman
Japan's solution to every problem: Throw money at it!
Forget about trying to find the root cause: Women not getting the same wages as men, Women not being able to get hired at a company due to the companies fear of her wanting to become a mother, Low Paying wages, and prices rising.
What Ogi-san came up with the idea that having women move from Tokyo will increase the birthrate?
Tim Sullivan
The overconcentration of everything in Tokyo has been a disaster waiting to happen for DECADES but the LDP has done absolutely nothing about it -- quelle surprise!
iron man
From my contacts in Kansai I believed that this was withdrawn..more schoolboy fantasies leading to horrendous behaviour on packed trains?. But it does expose that long term there needs to be some M&A between urban and rural areas 1.reduce gov o'heads etc, 2.give urban hide- indoors types (dunno jpn for that!) opportunities? 3.allow gaijin gardeners opportunities to be double productive? Tim tu compris en-francais?? or you have a bon-smart phone.
Disturbed_Moderate
Just the moving expenses alone would be about the same.
This just sounds like they could take advantage of some in desperate need for cash, who could potentially miscalculate this in a big way.
Why don't they make this open to men? Especially those with an interest in agriculture? It's a bit odd that their focus is "single women".... and it won't revive dying town economies in the long run..
This exactly.
Gene Hennigh
The idea of moving smaller businesses to more rural areas is a good one. Once the stress of living in Tokyo becomes a relief to people they just might like the move. It's possible women would be relieved, too, once they get out of there. This is at least better than doing nothing at all. It might not work in a large scale and many might move to another rather populated city, but it certainly is worth the try.