A widely ridiculed Japanese government idea to entice Tokyo women to marry rural men by offering cash payouts and train tickets to matchmaking events has been scrapped, officials said Friday.
Bureaucrats had envisioned payments of up to 600,000 yen ($4,140) for women who married and settled outside Tokyo as part of efforts to narrow a gaping gender gap in rural areas, local media reported.
Hanako Jimi, the state minister for regional renewal, said on Friday she had instructed officials to “review” the plan and insisted reports about the size of the payments were “not true”.
Media leaks about the scheme this week drew derision on social media, where critics saw it as typical in a country where men dominate politics and other fields, more so than in any other major industrialized economy.
“Did they think that independent, motivated and educated women in the city would think, ‘What?’ If I marry a local man and move to a rural area, I get 600,000 yen! I’ll do it!’? … Are they serious?” remarked one user on X.
Another said: “Do they still not get it? This is something people who see women as valuable only if they give birth would figure it out.”
Many rural areas in the world’s fourth largest economy are facing a depopulation crisis, with some small towns barely having any – or even zero – children.
One reason is that more young women than young men are leaving the villages and small towns they grew up in and moving to big cities, especially Tokyo, for better opportunities for higher education and work.
More than 40 percent of Japanese municipalities are at risk of disappearing because of the expected decline in the number of women in their 20s and 30s, a study by a panel of private sector experts suggested in April.