Japanese urged to marry to fight lower births
Audio 01:16
A marriage bonus of 600,000 yen to each Japanese couple under the age of 40.
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4 min
In Japan, the new Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, is tackling the scourge of low birth rates.
Because the latest demographic statistics to date are catastrophic: never has the country recorded so few births.
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From our correspondent in Tokyo
,
Bruno Duval
In Japan, it is very rare for children to be born to parents who are not married.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has therefore promised to grant a marriage bonus of 600,000 yen to each couple under the age of 40 who put their rings on their fingers.
Only 865,000 babies were born in the country last year: 50,000 less than the year before.
As the archipelago has never had so many seniors, in the long term it is the financing of the pension system that is threatened.
The Japanese must therefore give birth to more children, but it is easier said than done, according to these young Tokyoites.
- "
Get married?
There, I do not see who would want to marry me: I earn so badly my living
"
-"
Same for me: I am anything but a good match ... ;-) And given the cost of living in Tokyo, this 600,000
yen will
not make the difference ...
"
-"
This bonus would pay just part of the wedding ceremony or the move.
That would be it already, but then how would I make ends meet?
What the newlyweds need is long-term financial help.
”
-“
I had better get married and have children, I am told all day long.
This measure will further increase the social pressure I am under due to my celibacy
”
Prime Minister Suga actually comes up against the record of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe.
40% of Japanese employees have only a precarious job: they are so badly paid that they do not have the means to start a family.
Especially since schooling children is expensive in Japan.
With only 3% of the GDP going to education, public schools are poor compared to private schools, but the latter are financially inaccessible to many parents.
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