Japan drops plan to offer money to Tokyo women to move to rural areas

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The Japanese government on Friday scrapped its plans to provide single women in Tokyo with a financial incentive to move to rural areas after criticism that the move is discriminatory and lacks sensitivity.

The government’s initial plan was aimed at addressing the shrinking female population in the countryside, which happened because young women who moved to Tokyo for work and education tended to stay there. This led to fewer single women in rural areas compared to single men, worsening depopulation challenges.

The government had planned to cover travel costs for matchmaking events and provide additional financial incentives for those who move, including payments of up to 600,000 yen (£3,126).

Hanako Jimi, minister of state for regional revitalisation, said on Friday that she had ordered a “review” of the plan, and insisted that any reports made about the payments were “not true”.

“We will carefully listen to the voices of people who are struggling due to income gaps between men and women, gender bias, and other reasons, and take measures,” she said.

“Did they think independent, motivated and educated women in the city would think, ‘What? If I marry a local man and move to the countryside, I’ll get 600,000 yen! I’ll do it!’? … Are they serious?” one user said on X.

Another said: “Do they still not get it? This is something people who see women as valuable only if they give birth would come up with.”

It wasn’t just citizens who had a problem with the plan. An adviser to the prime minister too called out the issue with the plan, saying it didn’t address the root cause of the problem.

“If we try to motivate people to move to regional areas by using marriage, and leave the root cause of the problem unattended, it won’t be the right way to do it,” said Wakako Yata, an adviser to prime minister Fumio Kishida.

According to the 2020 national census, the total number of single women aged 15 to 49 in 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, excluding Tokyo, was about 9.1 million. This is approximately 20 per cent less than the 11.1 million single men in the same age group, with the gap reaching around 30 per cent in some prefectures.

Japan’s shrinking birth rate has been a problem the government is trying desperately to tackle, even launching a dating app in June this year.

“If there are many individuals interested in marriage but unable to find a partner, we want to provide support,” a Tokyo official was quoted by The Asahi Shimbun as saying.

“We hope that this app, with its association with the government, will provide a sense of security and encourage those who have been hesitant to use traditional apps to take the first step in their search for a partner.”

Births fell for the eighth consecutive year to 758,631, a drop of 5.1 per cent in Japan, according to the government. In 2023, Japan recorded more than twice as many deaths as new babies.

About 90,000 babies were born in Tokyo in 2022 – a 15.2 per cent drop from a decade earlier. Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike attributed the decline in births to a low marriage rate.

Japan’s population will likely decline by about 30 per cent to 87 million by 2070, with four out of every 10 people aged 65 or older, according to estimates by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.