This phenomenon is repeated in almost all major capitals. Citizens of the country in question move to big cities in the hope of finding better opportunities. And with them hundreds of thousands of other citizens of the planet. The final scenario is overpopulated residential areas and unpopulated or half-empty areas in the rest of the country. This is happening in Tokyo, for example, and Japan has a surprising idea to solve this problem.

Money and husband are on the field. There is no doubt that Japan is a country of tradition, especially when times get more complicated. It is those moments in history when the country often looks back for solutions. So the answer they came up with, while shocking, is not new and should be understood as logical in their own way of working.

The plan: In fiscal 2025, it will begin supporting single women moving from Tokyo to rural areas to get married. The idea is to help those looking to move elsewhere at a time when the population of young women in rural areas is shrinking significantly and Tokyo is becoming increasingly crowded.

The problem of capital. Faced with the country’s demographic crisis, Tokyo, like other major capitals like New York and London, lives oblivious to national problems. Japan’s population is shrinking, but you probably wouldn’t guess that by walking around Tokyo. The capital seems more densely populated than ever, and that’s because an increasing portion of the country is concentrated here.

However, as the population of the big city increases and more space is taken up on the outer map, the smaller regional communities are shrinking rapidly. Like? Fewer local births, for example, and then many of those children moving to Tokyo when they grow up. The Japanese government knows this and wants the population to be more evenly distributed.

Let’s get back to the field. So, as leaked in a Kyodo report, the new plan consists of allocating funds in its budget for the fiscal year starting in April 2025 to pay women one million yen (about $7,000 today) to move out of Tokyo and get married. A man living in a less populated area of ​​Japan. In this way, single women living in or traveling to workplaces in Tokyo’s 23 central wards will be able to apply for the offer (and payment).

While the list of cities/regions they could be moved to is not yet known, smaller cities outside of Tokyo will most likely not be included, as the goal is to increase the number of people living in communities where the possibility of disappearance is a concern. Cases like Osaka or Kyoto are still too large and will instead focus on more rural communities or at least smaller regional cities.

All expenses have been paid. The offer apparently includes the cost of women travelling from Tokyo to rural areas to participate in matchmaking events as part of the initiative, and if they do indeed move to those areas, they will be given another financial amount. Details of the amounts to be paid will be taken into account during the budgeting process.

There are more women than men in the capital. The measure also seeks to address a situation that has worsened in recent years: the net inflow of women into the Tokyo metropolitan area is greater than that of men. Rural women tend not to return to their hometowns or other areas outside Tokyo after moving to the capital to study or work, according to a government official. This trend has led to the number of single women in rural areas falling below the number of single men.

According to the 2020 national census, the total population of single women aged 15 to 49 in 46 of Japan’s 47 prefectures excluding Tokyo was about 9.1 million, about 20% less than single men in the same age group. In some prefectures, the difference was around 30%.

A controversial measure. The report also acknowledges that limiting subsidies for women based on gender could lead to negative public reactions, and it could be argued that offering money only to women is an indirect way of alienating them from capital and/or attracting men.

In any case, it seems clear that they placed the idea of ​​preventing rural depopulation due to the scarcity of young women above gender discussions.

Image | RawPixel, Pexels

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