How to deal with depopulation in rural areas? This question has been haunting Japanese regional governments for decades now.
Above all, not only do they need to encourage the people who move away to major urban centers for work to return, they really need to target younger people with families. Because above all, these areas need young people.
The central government’s policy when it comes to urgent matters is typically to launch a PR campaign — in terms of the climate crisis, it’s mostly about promoting the UN SDGs — or throw money at it.
For the issue of depopulation, they have resorted to the latter with a decision that some have found insulting.
According to media reports that emerged this week, the government plans to give women ¥600,000 if they move out of Tokyo and marry someone in a less populous part of the country.
To qualify for the lump sum, bachelorettes have to currently live or work in one of Tokyo’s 23 central wards, and then move out to another part of Japan.
The list of places where their marriage partner has to live to qualify has not been announced, but it will likely include most places except major urban centers like Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Sendai, and so on.
The scheme is set for introduction in fiscal 2025, according to government sources quoted by Kyodo News.
The sum is pretty paltry (it’s a bit over $4,100 at current exchange rates) and would likely just about cover relocation costs and some of the fees associated with renting a new home.
Some have said this is the equivalent of promoting the kind of arranged marriages that took place in the farm, where a farmer would “send away” for a wife to be sent to him.
Comparisons have been drawn with the Edo-period hitogaeshi “people going home” decrees in the 19th century, when the shogunate ordered peasants out of Edo (Tokyo).
Cynics have also pointed out that the current monetary incentive for individuals and families to move away from Tokyo to live and work in rural areas has so far failed to produce a significant demographic shift.
Some municipalities already have similar initiatives in place. A scheme in Bihoro, Hokkaido, even tries to play cupid, matching women with single farmers in the area.
There are possibly as many as two million more unmarried men in Japan than woman.
Update (August 31) Due to public criticism, the government is now saying that this proposed scheme will be reconsidered.
