This phenomenon occurs in almost every major capital city. Citizens eventually move to the big cities where they hope to find better opportunities. The result is overpopulated cities and depopulated or half-empty areas in the rest of the country. This is what's happening in Tokyo, and Japan has a surprising plan to deal with the problem.
Money and a husband in the countryside. Japan is, without a doubt, a country of tradition, especially when things started getting complicated. In these situations, the government often looks to history to find solutions. As such, Japan’s proposal, although shocking, isn’t new and should be understood as logical according to its traditions.
Starting in fiscal year 2025, the government plans to support single women who move from Tokyo to rural areas to get married. The purpose is to help those interested in relocating at a time when the number of young women in the countryside is shrinking while Tokyo becomes increasingly overpopulated.
The problem in the capital city. Japan is facing a demographic crisis. However, like other major capitals such as New York or London, Tokyo is oblivious to national issues. Japan’s population is shrinking, but you’d never know it when you walk around Tokyo. The capital seems busier than ever, and that’s because more Japanese people live there.
The smaller regional communities are rapidly getting smaller as the big city becomes more populous and grows outward from its territory. How? There are fewer local births, and many of those children move to Tokyo when they grow up. The Japanese government knows this and wants a more even population distribution.
Back to the countryside. As local media outlet Kyodo reports, the new plan is to allocate funds from the budget for the fiscal year beginning in April 2025 to pay 1 million yen (about $7,000) to women who move out of Tokyo and marry a man who lives in a less populated part of Japan, according to an English translation provided by Google. Single women who live in or commute to work in the 23 central wards of Tokyo are eligible to apply for the program and receive the payment.
The list of cities and regions these women may move to isn’t yet known. If the goal is to increase the number of residents in communities at risk of disappearing, cities that are smaller than Tokyo but still large, such as Osaka or Kyoto, won’t be included. Instead, the government will likely focus on more rural communities or smaller regional cities.
All expenses paid. The proposal apparently includes the cost of travel for women from Tokyo to rural areas to attend matchmaking events as part of the initiative. They’ll also receive other financial support if they move to these areas. The government will consider the details of the amounts during the budgeting process.
There are more women than men in the capital. Japan also seeks to address a situation that has been growing in recent years: The net influx of women into the Tokyo metropolitan area has been more significant than that of men. According to a government official that spoke the Japan Times, women from rural areas tend not to return to their hometowns or other regions outside Tokyo once they move to the capital to study or work. This trend has resulted in the number of single women in the countryside falling below the number of single men.
According to the 2020 census, the combined population of single women aged 15-49 in 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, excluding Tokyo, was about 9.1 million, about 20% less than the 11.1 million single men in the same age group. In some prefectures, the difference was about 30%.
This is a controversial measure. The Kyodo report also acknowledges that limiting funding to women based on gender could provoke an adverse public reaction. People might argue that offering money only to women indirectly drives them out of the capital and attracts men.
In any case, it seems clear that the government is prioritizing the idea of preventing rural depopulation over to the decline of younger women. It's not worrying about causing gender controversies.
Image | Hong Son
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