Producing children for pay? by Tony Green

Older Asian Couple

The Chinese government supports a policy of prohibiting their urban citizens to limit child production to no more than one child. Parents with multiple children are not given the same benefits as parents of one child. Moreover, in some cases, wealthy families pay a fee to the government in order to have a second child or more. The policy is designed to tackle the problems which result from uncontrolled population growth like epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services namely health, education, and law enforcement.

This is a strike contrast to the Japanese government.  During my recent trip to Japan, I realized many Japanese are aging but due to population trends resources to support this aging populace may become scarce. For example, my wife’s parents had three children from which they had two grandchildren. Over time if most families bear fewer grandchildren than children then in the long-term the population will decrease. Another example is my wife’s elementary school will be closing after being open since after the Second World War as a result of decreased enrollment of student in her area.

It was even mentioned at some point in the future Japan may cease to exist as result of this birth rate decline. This to me seems extreme; however, it is clear in the long-term something needs to done. How the Japanese government incentivizing its young people to create offspring in the same way that the Chinese in a roundabout way pays its residents to limit births?

I have a hard time believing I am typing this on a blog that anyone can read via the Internet. The concept of getting a stipend to grow families is not quite the “normal” idea of childrearing. Most people given the correct circumstances would happily produce offspring.   

Typically the younger generation looks after the older one. With the risk of there not being enough younger folks to address the needs of the older age group what is the alternative?   Should the Japanese at least consider finding some way to incentivize their populace to produce children?