The Japanese government on Friday shelved its plans to give money and encourage more women to relocate to rural areas upon marriage, after a chorus of criticism online that the move is discriminatory and lacks sensitivity, despite its intended aim of helping revitalize regional areas.
The government initially planned to incentivize the relocation of would-be brides to rural areas by expanding the scope of an existing program that hands out up to 600,000 yen ($4,100) per person to those moving out of the Tokyo metropolitan area and work in other parts of Japan.
The plan was to remove that work requirement while also targeting women looking for partners outside the greater Tokyo area to tie the knot with.
As soon as the idea was reported by media outlets, however, the government faced an immediate backlash, with online comments such as "Do they think money can buy women?" and "They are trying to 'utilize' women."
Criticisms also came from within the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. "If we try to motivate people to move to regional areas by using marriage, and leave the root cause of the problem unattended, it won't be the right way to do it," said Wakako Yata, an adviser to the prime minister.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, regional revitalization minister Hanako Jimi said she instructed officials to "reconsider" the plan.
"We will carefully listen to the voices of people who are struggling due to income gaps between men and women, gender bias, and other reasons, and take measures," she said.
The government is tackling the concentration of people in urban areas like Tokyo. The COVID-19 pandemic increased the appeal of rural areas by giving people more flexibility in how and where they work.
Still, overconcentration remains a challenge, with Tokyo experiencing a net inflow of around 68,000 people in 2023, according to government data. Of the total, around 37,000 were women.
The ratio of single men in rural areas is higher than in cities, partly because an increasing number of women are choosing to remain in the Tokyo area rather than return to their hometowns.
Japan is already one of the world's fastest aging nations, with its birthrate on a downtrend. The trend reflects more people choosing not to marry at all or to do so late in life.
