Cash for Kids: Japan's Employers Offer 'Baby Bonuses'
Controversial Strategy Designed to Boost Country's Sagging Birthrate


Japan is using a controversial new strategy to boost its birthrate: It's offering financial incentives to families for having babies.

http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/4284/japanrp9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Under pressure from the Japanese government, employers are offering baby bonuses in the form of everything from cell phones to cold, hard cash.

The Nakatsuka family got more than a bundle of joy when their third child, Yui, was born.

They got cash as well -- an $8,000 bonus from the husband's employer, the Japanese telecom company Softbank. It was a bonus for having another child.

The baby bonus is policy at Softbank, which bills itself as Japan's most family-friendly company.

At the company, employees are encouraged to take more time off to be with their children and work at home when they need to. And then there are the baby bonuses, which range from $400 for a first child to up to $40,000 for a fifth child.

But there's another reason for Softbank's generosity: patriotism.

Japan is faced today with a rapidly aging and now shrinking population.

Young Japanese citizens say it's too expensive to have kids, and women in particular don't want to give up their careers and lifestyles for motherhood.

A few years ago, local governments began offering cash bonuses to boost the population in rural Japan.

Now, corporate Japan is joining the battle.

Panasonic, Canon and Sharp have all offered financial aid for working mothers. Some companies even pay for fertility treatments.

But nothing quite beats those Softbank bonuses.

The Nakatsuka family could end up with an additional $60,000 if they have a fourth and fifth child.

Each child also gets a free mobile phone with Softbank paying the phone bills.

Maybe we could convince them to take some immigrants. I bet some Mexicans would be willing to go there.

LOL http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7971/biggrinpg1.gif (http://imageshack.us)

isn't japan a bit small to be trying to force more people into such a small area?

they can't feed themselves as it is.

isn't japan a bit small to be trying to force more people into such a small area?

they can't feed themselves as it is.

Japans economy and such is fine, I dunno where you get the idea they cant feed themselves. Their population is on the decline due to the fact that something like 50% of the population is like 50+.

as in feed themselves without having to have it imported. there is very little area to house themselves as it is.

why not just invent more robots to do the work.

population decline is a GOOD thing.

as in feed themselves without having to have it imported. there is very little area to house themselves as it is.

why not just invent more robots to do the work.

population decline is a GOOD thing.

If you're trying to go the way of the dodo bird negative growth is indeed the way to go.
Russia has the same problem. Their mortality rate is greater than their birth rate. Like the Japanese, if they don't turn it around they'll be extinct too.

population decline is a GOOD thing.

Excellent point.

Sadly however, most homo sapiens around the world are saddled with a deep-seated superstitious arrogance and nationalistic pride concerning **their** oh-so-crucially-important "people", their 'race' and "their" particular nation-state to the point that they are fanatical about it having a sufficient number of warm bodies to insure that it will continue ad infinitum after they're gone.

For me, I could care less if the entire human race went extinct. Far too large a segment of it is composed of dimwitted, reactionary, nationalistic, gods-guns-and-guts oafs who comprise a pestilence to the planet.

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What's my problem with America? I'll tell you; The dumb certitude; the blind conformity; the ostentatious religosity; the callous laws; the love of guns; the thoughtless flag worship; the facile amiability; the all-consuming drive for material success; the showy insubstantiality of the politics; the infantile literal-mindedness; and the faith, withal, in America's planetary moral superiority --- in the notion that the American way of life is the best ever devised, that America is, in Lincoln's phrase, "the last best hope" for mankind.

Excellent point.
Sadly however, most homo sapiens around the world are saddled with a deep-seated superstitious arrogance and nationalistic pride concerning **their** oh-so-crucially-important "people", their 'race' and "their" particular nation-state to the point that they are fanatical about it having a sufficient number of warm bodies to insure that it will continue ad infinitum after they're gone.

For me, I could care less if the entire human race went extinct. Far too large a segment of it is composed of dimwitted, reactionary, nationalistic, gods-guns-and-guts oafs who comprise a pestilence to the planet.


∩( ・ω・)∩ < I would tell you on representative of Japan.
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∩( ・ω・)∩ < I'm sorry the stress on you.

See sig pic.

As I understand it (probably not that well - I admit), Japan's society does not like immigrants. This has stalled some of their economic growth due to this.

Maybe they are wanting more kids for this "shortfall"?