Tokyo. The Japanese government has announced that one million yen per child will be offered to families who choose to live outside Tokyo. The government has announced an increase of 700,000 yen in incentives to 1 million yen ($7,500) per child. The incentive was launched in 2019 and aims to encourage people to move to areas where birth rates are falling and populations are ageing. For this, the government has included people from many areas among the beneficiaries of this scheme.
Under this, people from 23 wards of Tokyo have been mainly selected for the last 5 years. The scheme will also cover families whose working parents are working in Tokyo. Also, residents of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa provinces are also eligible. Apart from this, those who are working in a small or medium sized company in that area. The government says that people who use the Internet to continue their pre-migration work and start business in the area where they are living. They will also get the benefit of the scheme.
Will have to stay in the village for 5 years, otherwise the money will have to be returned
In fact the program also allows for increased financial assistance for families that have more than one child. The current subsidy is 300,000 yen per child, according to Nikkei. This rule will come into effect from April 2023 and couples with two children will receive an amount of up to 3 million yen. Parents will not be subjected to any income test. Japanese parents have been told to move to their new local government within three months to a year of relocating and declare their intention to live there for at least five years. If they do not live at that place for five years, they will be asked to return the money. About 1,300 municipalities are involved in the program.
A part of the infrastructure development plan for the Digital Garden City Nation
In 2021, 1,184 families were given rehabilitation assistance. The number of families that became part of the incentive program was 71 in 2019 and 290 in 2020. The number increased in 2020 as remote working was added to the eligibility criteria. The Japanese government says that this program is a part of the infrastructure development plan for the Digital Garden City Nation. Nikkei Asia has said in a report that it aims to revive areas other than the capital region by promoting rehabilitation in rural areas through digitization. The government aims to increase the number of families shifted to rural areas to 10,000 within 2027. The government said that the environment will be developed along with the resettlement plan to help people adapt to the rural areas. Self-driving buses and setting up of remote medical care and official satellite offices are also part of the plan. Till August 2022, 654 satellite offices have been set up.