The ministry of health, labor, and welfare in Japan is paying people to encourage them to add a kid to their family in an attempt to boost its low and decreasing birth rate for some time. A 420,000 yen Childbirth and Childcare Lump-Sum Grant is now being given to new parents in Japan following the birth of their child.
Japan’s health minister Katsunobu Kato said that the country wants to increase this amount to 500,000 yen ($3,400) as he met with the prime minister, Fumio Kishida.
Despite the name “Childbirth and Childcare Lump-Sum Grant” one of the main reasons people do not want to have kids in Japan has been the increasing costs. Child birth fees have to be covered out of pocket even if the award is supported by Japan’s public medical insurance system. The national average for delivery costs is around 473,000 yen ($3,200), it has been reported.
Thus, even if the grant were increased, parents would still only have, on average 30,000 yen left over when they returned home from the hospital which is not a huge amount to support the child.
All things considered, new parents would be grateful for a little additional money as their family grows, and the 80,000 yen increase would be the highest ever for the grant and its first since 2009.
