Japan: “You have a baby and we forgive your debt”, the incredible government proposal that causes controversy

The measure was suggested by the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, to reverse the drop in the birth rate.

Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, was embroiled in fierce controversy after his party suggested easing the residents’ student debt in exchange for them deciding to have children, in one of the measures proposed to try to stop the dramatic decline. of birth in the Asian giant.

Kishida earlier this year promised “unprecedented” measures to combat Japan’s extremely low birth rate, a chronic and worsening problem.

Kishida’s political formation, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP, right), is working on several proposals on the issue, which will be presented to the government at the end of March, according to local media.

But one of those proposals, which conditions the reduction of student debt to paternity, aroused a wave of criticism.

“Demanding a child in exchange for a reduction in student debt is a bad measure to deal with the low birth rate,” Senator Noriko Ishigaki said on Friday during a debate in the Upper House of Japan’s Parliament, in the presence of the prime minister. .

Kishida gave few details about the content of the proposal, preferring to insist on the need to “respect” a “free and vigorous” debate on the issue.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. AP photo.

Criticism also flowed on Twitter. “It’s like saying ‘Pay with your body!'” wrote one user of the social network indignantly, while another considered that the PLD’s measures amount to “treating human beings like cattle.”

Masahiko Shibayama, a PLD deputy – who heads the commission working on this matter – assured the Japanese media that this measure was intended to financially support families, and not penalize homes without children.

“We are looking at this as an extension of supporting children’s education, rather than as a childbirth policy,” he told Asahi television. “It is extremely unfortunate that this was taken in a context where there would be no benefit unless you give birth.”

In a speech in January, Kishida said that Japan’s low birthrate and aging population posed an urgent risk to society, adding that “focusing attention on child-rearing and child-rearing policies It is a problem that cannot wait or be postponed”.

Kishida even warned that the country is “on the verge of not being able to function” due to the historically low birth rate. It is that for the first time in more than a century, the number of babies born in Japan fell below 800,000 in 2022. In the 1970s, to put in context, that number exceeded two million.

The prime minister also announced that he will double the government’s fiscal spending for programs that promote birth, focused on supporting the upbringing of children. This will represent a disbursement close to 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Birth rates are declining in many developed countries, but in Japan the problem is particularly acute. The country has the world’s second-highest proportion of people aged 65 and over, after the small state of Monaco, according to World Bank data.

At the same time, the average number of children a Japanese woman has is 1.3, one of the lowest rates in the world. The lowest is another Asian neighbor, South Korea, with 0.78.

With information from AFP

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