Japan’s Time Bomb

September 20, 2024

NEW DELHI – In a bizarre move to address the country’s declining population, the Japanese government launched a new initiative to support single women moving out of Tokyo to rural areas to get married and thus fill the gap of a shrinking female population in the countryside. The government believed that the move would counter the trend of young women remaining in Tokyo for education or work, which has led to fewer single women in rural areas compared to single men, worsening population challenges.

The government also announced that it would cover travel costs for matchmaking events and provide additional financial incentives for those who decide to relocate. The government was probably guided by the 2020 national census that showed the total number of single women aged between 15 and 49 in 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, excluding Tokyo, was about 9.1 million, which was 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. As in other countries, in Japan as well, women shift base to larger cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and others for better education and work, leaving fewer single women compared to single men in the countryside.

The financial subsidy for those willing to relocate to rural areas from Tokyo’s 23 wards and get married to a man living in a less populous part of Japan entailed an offer of 600,000 yen or about $4200. The government noticed that while Tokyo gets more and more crowded, smaller regional communities are quickly shrinking. With fewer local births and kids moving away to Tokyo when they grow up, the Japanese capital faces the pressure to accommodate increasing numbers of people. The