The WSJ reports on a town in Japan that is bucking the trend, and easily have fertility above the replacement rate. What is their secret?
The fertility rate reached 2.95 in 2019, and has slipped back to what is still a very commendable 2.68 in 2021, a pandemic year. Japan as a whole is a lowly 1.3.
Something to keep in mind is that the town only has 5,700 people, and based on the stats given, only 16 births per year. So it doesn’t take many extra babies to swing the statistics a little. Still, 16 is a lot more than the 8 they would have if they were typical of all of Japan.
Nagi-cho has received widespread media, especially now the national government is putting more effort into halting the declining population, and seven or eight delegations from other towns are arriving each month to learn the secrets, which are not particularly magical:
- Capped daycare
- Subsidised baby-sitting
- Free medical care for children
- Subsided bus transport to high schools in other towns (Nagi doesn’t have one)
- Cash incentives for young couples to move to the town
The town has sacrificed other aspects of the budget to achieve it.
The first three factors are not particularly rare or innovative, but paying people to move there is. That seems to be the key for Nagi, and obviously it cannot improve the national fertility rate!