Japan’s government, led by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), keeps inventing new ways to encourage Japanese citizens to have children. Unfortunately, the male-dominated party sometimes ends up issuing proposals that seem, shall we say, a bit sexist? Exhibit A: The now-retracted plan to pay women to move out of the city to get hitched.
Luring women out of Tokyo
The proposal, issued late in August 2024, aimed to promote “marriage relocation” (็งปไฝๅฉ; ijuukon). Under the scheme, the government would pay women who currently lived in one of Tokyo’s 23 cities 600,000 yen (USD $4,217) to move to the countryside. The women had to be single and would move there with the intention of marrying…I don’t know, some dude, I guess.
The idea isn’t new. Indeed, a version of it is already policy.
For years, Japan’s central government has tried to reverse the outflux of people moving out of remote countryside locations. It already offers up to 600K yen in support for men or women who work in Tokyo’s 23 cities and want to move to the country. The government has doled out such payments to 16,000 people since 2019.
While people moving to major cities is understandable for economic reasons, it’s also putting the future of many small towns in jeopardy. Indeed, in the aftermath of the Noto Peninsula earthquake, there was a debate over whether certain towns should be rebuilt or simply shuttered.
The move to the city is most marked among women. Way back in 2019, I wrote about the exodus of young people from 40 of Japan’s prefectures. Of those who moved, the majority in many prefectures were female.
Most of those women moved to Tokyo. When asked why, many said they wanted to live their lives free of the influence of their families. Economic and social factors – such as the wage gap between men and women – also played a role.
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“Why target women?”
Outgoing Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s cabinet included the proposal as part of its 2025 budget. News of the measure immediately made headlines and sparked outrage on social media.
“See, they don’t view women as human beings with lives,” said X user @beautifulsail13. “They talk about ‘putting women to use,’ thinking of them only as resources.”
“We thought the taxes they collected from us would be used for our benefit,” railed user @sy0000ys. “We were gravely mistaken. The money you hand over to the country is destined to be wasted on such ridiculous schemes.”
Many wondered why the program only targeted women and not men and women equally. By targeting only one gender, the proposal seemed to blame women for the country’s falling population and declining marriage rates.
Others lambasted the proposal as ineffective and insufficient. 600K yen, many argued, was hardly a drop in the bucket for someone looking to get married and start a family.
Newspaper editorials also blasted the proposal. The Kochi Shimbun urged the government to look at the actual reasons that Japanese women are fleeing the countryside, which include “the wage gap between men and women and the prevalence of fixed ideas regarding gender roles and responsibilities.”
As a result of the backlash, the government officially retracted the proposal. Jimi Hanako, who leads the Cabinet’s countryside revitalization initiative, promised that future proposals would “heed the voices of citizens suffering the effects of gender bias.”
Too many men in government?
It’s interesting that such a proposal came from one of the Liberal Democratic Party’s few female representatives. Jimi Hanako currently serves a second term as a proportional representation candidate. She comprises part of the 26.7% of women who make up Japan’s House of Councillors in the national Diet.
Women only make up 10.3% of the lower House of Representatives. That means women comprise a mere 16% of Japan’s national lawmaking assembly. These numbers keep Japan near the bottom of the barrel in world rankings of gender equality.
How did such an explicitly slanted proposal make it into the budget proposal of one of Japan’s few female representatives and Cabinet members? In many ways, this is just how the LDP rolls.
Sadly, no political party in Japan has great female representation in Japan’s Diet. But the LDP trails the pack at a mere 11.3%. This, despite vowing to raise that number to 30% within the next 10 (or, at this point, nine) years.
This lack of female representation means the LDP frequently thinks – and acts – like an Old Boy’s Club. Some of its key politicians, such as Aso Taro, regularly make sexist statements blaming women for Japan’s low birth and marriage rates. Earlier this year, the party found several of its members swept up in a scandal involving scantily clad dancers at an official party function.
The LDP obviously needs some new ideas. But more importantly, it could benefit from new – and more diverse – voices.
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ๅฐๆนใธใฎใ็งปไฝๅฉใใชใๅฅณๆงใ ใใซ60ไธๅ๏ผใๆฟๅบใๆค่จใใๆฑไบฌไธๆฅต้ไธญๆญฏๆญขใ็ญใซๅนๆใฏใใใ. Tokyo Shimbun
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10ๅนดๅพใซๅฅณๆงๅฝไผ่ญฐๅกใ3ๅฒใซใ่ชๆฐๅ ใใๅฅณๆง็ป็จใใฎ่จ็ปๆก. Asahi Shimbun
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