A widely ridiculed Japanese government idea to woo Tokyo women into marrying men in rural areas by offering cash payouts and train tickets to matchmaking events has been scrapped, officials said yesterday.
Bureaucrats had envisioned payments of up to ￥600,000 (US$4,130) for women who got married and settled outside of Tokyo as part of efforts to reduce a yawning countryside gender gap, local media reported.
Japanese Minister of State for Regional Revitalization Hanako Jimi said that she had instructed officials to “review” the plan, adding that reports about the size of payments were “not true.”
Photo: Reuters
Media leaks about the scheme this week drew scorn on social media, where critics saw it as typical in a country where men dominate politics and other areas, more than in any other major industrialized economy.
“Did they think independent, motivated and educated women in the city would think: ‘What? If I marry a local man and move to a countryside, I’ll get ￥600,000! I’ll do it!’?... Are they serious?” one user wrote on X.
“Do they still not get it? This is something people who see women as valuable only if they give birth would come up with,” another said.
As they age, many rural areas in Japan are facing a depopulation crisis, with some small towns having hardly any — or even zero — children. One cause is that more young women than young men leave the villages and small towns they grew up in and move to big cities, especially Tokyo, for better opportunities in higher education and work.
More than 40 percent of Japanese municipalities are at “risk of disappearing” due to the expected drop in the number of women in their 20s and 30s, a study
by a private-sector expert panel said in April.
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