How Japan tries to solve its population problems | DW News

Japan's government wants families to move out of the crowded Capital Tokyo and has significantly boosted a one-time Grant to kick things along it's now worth one million yen per child which is about seven and a half thousand US Dollars now the incentive is part of an official push to breathe life into declining towns and Villages a whopping 30 percent of Japan's population now lives in Greater Tokyo tens of thousands of people move there each year hollowing out other parts of Japan which have aging populations let's get more details now on this from DW newsagia reporter Michelle Stockman Michelle great to have you here so why is the Japanese government doing this in a demographic crisis so big cities like Tokyo are a magnet to young people because of their High earning opportunities and also educational opportunities on top of that Japan faces a aging population and also a declining birth rate so with that internal migration to big cities the small towns and Villages that those people are leaving from are dying out and what that looks like is basically schools where there are no students where a farmer might wonder who's going to take over my farm when I decide to retire or streets lined with shuttered businesses and in fact I spoke to an American man who is married to a Japanese woman and they've lived in Japan for a number of years in Tokyo he's actually semi-retired able to work remotely and he and his wife decided to make the leap to move from Tokyo to the countryside and during that research it became very apparent to him just how urgently local officials and small towns like the one where he moved to are looking for people to take over businesses and keep their towns alive uh there are lots and lots of local businesses that do not have successors and as long as you have the basic business skills some experience the language or capability you can actually apply to take over someone's original business now you won't do it TurnKey it won't be right overnight what will happen is most likely you'd have to spend at least six months maybe a year kind of learning from the original owner but and it might turn out to be a fantastic experience then you can literally take over an existing business when we were contemplating coming down here although I wasn't really interested in doing that at the local government authorities were very interested to see if I could take over someone's local business so should be possible Mark Kennedy there speaking to us a bit earlier from Japan Michelle what do families have to do to qualify so couples or single parents with children under the age of 18 qualify they have to have a job in the new town and also they have to stay for five years otherwise they have to pay the money back so no backseats you really have to stick it out and um you know um the point is though are people actually um you know taking advantage of these subsidies well um the carrot is actually sweeter um families who do have a new job in the location can actually qualify for up to three million more Yen which is equivalent to around twenty two thousand dollars so we're talking about potentially tens of thousands of dollars to move to a new place but you really have to have that job figured out you have to either start a new business take over a business or be able to work remotely and how many families have decided to take this quite big leap Michelle well this scheme has existed since 2019 um the subsidy to for each child was lower than so that's why they've boosted it now because they want more people to participate but if you look at the the numbers uh just about 1500 families have participated in the three years that it's existed and in the big picture of Greater Tokyo which is a population of 35 million people that's just a drop in the bucket and you know there may be some families who who want to get away from the crushing expectations of child care and long work hours in Tokyo High Cost of Living and go to Nature and enjoy that but the big question is financially can people swing it and going back to Mark he and his wife decided yes we can swing it they actually didn't have kids who Moved with them so they didn't get the subsidy but they were able to get other subsidies to move there and help finding housing and he joined me in an interview on a break from his day at the day spa so you know he's he's loving life he and his wife say they have not looked back well I'm not a Country Boy originally but this is a beautiful part of Japan so we're right near the sea also there are mountains and there are lots of hot springs this particular area is in the adjacent prefecture to where we live but both have lots and lots of hot springs so it's really close to Nature we literally moved from the middle of Tokyo to the countryside so it was a pretty abrupt change uh but it's great the pace of life is a little slower here and yet we're not too far removed from Tokyo I go up there uh on for a part-time role about once every month or six weeks and it's really easy it's only an hour and a half plane ride so it's pretty close but everything's better down here it's it's less expensive the quality of life is higher the food is really good and we can grow basically all the vegetables we need so we don't really buy vegetables anymore at the supermarket just buy meat and fish some of our one of my sons really likes of fish so when he comes to visit he literally goes out and brings home dinner basically every time he comes bringing home the fish but you know bringing home the bacon I think that's the big question for most families beyond the payment you can receive these towns also offer um you know relocation seminars personal coaches to help you integrate but at the end of the day I think families are just going to have to decide does this make sense for us long term financially really fascinating story Michelle Stockman now DW newsagia reporter thanks so much for breaking that down for us and earlier I spoke with sociologist Dr Yuka minagawa at Sofia University in Tokyo and I asked her if this could be a sustainable solution to some of Japan's long-term demographic problems she pointed out some potential issues with the government scheme so this idea or this new providing per child for to a remote area is based on a one-time payment right one one-time cash payment of 100 of 1 million yen but uh Apparently that is not going to address the long-term needs that a family will face such as cost for education and and living expenses so what needs to be done is that I believe is to take a long-term strategy to raise a salary to lower the living expenses including costs for education and to provide more opportunities for education and employment in rural areas um Japan as you've hinted there is facing some real pressures particularly when it comes to demography aging populations a low fertility rate too many people living in Tokyo not enough people living in rural areas talk to us about why Japan is at this point right now are three types for demographers there are three types of internal migration that one is I type I curve of migration meaning that someone is born in one place and moving to another place never to return the second type is called it's sort of like a u-carb that someone was born in one place moving around but eventually come back to where he or she was born and the third type is called J shape J shape migration meaning that someone was born in one place in but kept keep moving never to return to where he or she is from so what we have what we currently observe is this uh increase of um sort of I turn and a j turn and the problem is that the destination of these internal migrations tend to be concentrated in large cities namely Tokyo because these places offer greater opportunities for education and and employment and according to the latest census of 2020 about 30 percent of the entire population resided in Tokyo and itsization prefectures suggesting that about one-third of the population is concentrated in the Tokyo area so the real problem is that a destination of internal migration tends to be in large cities because it's got more opportunities okay understand and and I guess uh perhaps a lot of women are moving from rural areas into Tokyo in search of employment and and better opportunities and perhaps choosing to not have children for whichever reason what are some of these reasons that perhaps women in Japan are deciding that having children might not be for them um right so Japan is currently facing this another very important uh challenge key challenge of lower birth rate and there are so many factors contributing to low birth rates in Japan among women in Japan but the uh one important contributor is uh educational and educational attainment among young women so highly educated women tend to postpone childbirth or a marriage per se um so that partly explains uh that this Japan's lower birth rate so higher education uh increases in women's education therefore increases in women's participation in labor force hmm I'd like to focus slightly finally doctor and ask you of course about the one issue in the last few years that's affected everybody around the world and that is the pandemic how has the pandemic affected people's attitudes to things like work-life balance and perhaps being more open to live somewhere that isn't a big city the hurdles the barriers for relocation to remote areas have largely declined during the covid-19 pandemic because the options of remote work have become more available and the locations of work have become less important so it's that's that's one uh positive aspect but as I said earlier uh when it comes to relocation it's really that the challenge is to find the employment that allow them to work remotely um and and particularly for two adults in one household that's really a big challenge so finding a one job for one person is not enough if family wants really decides to move to to relocate to a remote area so finding uh employment finding uh finding jobs for two persons in a in a one household is a big it's a real challenge certainly a big challenge as you say that was social demographer Dr Yuka minogawa there in Toko we'd really like to thank you for your time and your insights today thank you

Channel: DW News

Views: 297,704

Keywords: DW News, tokyo, japan, japan population, demograohy, tokyo population, de-urbanisation, urbanisation

Id: PDyjSp-2kcY

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 13 2023