The government plans to double the maximum amount of financial assistance to newlyweds from 300,000 yen to 600,000 yen starting next fiscal year, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
This is part of the government's efforts to improve the child-rearing environment by having fertility treatments covered by health insurance, and reducing the number of children waiting to be accepted to nursery schools, areas in which Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is taking the initiative.
The assistance will be provided to couples who live in municipalities engaged in the "project to support the new lives of newlyweds" and register their marriage in those municipalities. Couples must be aged 39 or younger at the time of the marriage, and their annual household income has to be less than 5.4 million yen.
The subsidy is meant to help pay for such expenses as buying a new house, paying rent or moving. The Cabinet Office has earmarked 2 billion yen in its budget request for the subsidy for next fiscal year.
Currently, couples must be 34 or younger and their total annual income less than 3.4 million yen (or annual household income of less than 4.8 million yen). The government is widening the eligibility requirements because people are getting married later.
Municipalities will decide the amount of the subsidies from next fiscal year. Under the current system, the central government and municipalities each shoulder half of the subsidy.
As of July 10, a total of 281 cities, towns and villages, including Chiba, Kobe and Wakayama, were engaged in the project to support newlyweds. Tokyo, Fukui, Yamanashi and Hiroshima prefectures have no municipalities involved in the project.
The government believes that the burden of covering 50% of the subsidy has prevented the project from spreading. To avoid increasing the burden on municipalities, the government plans to raise the portion of its contribution to two-thirds, in line with the expansion of the amount of the subsidy.
Births in 2019 dropped to a record low of 865,234. There are concerns that this will accelerate further as people put off having children amid the novel coronavirus pandemic and the worsening employment situation.
Suga included measures to address the chronically low birth rate in the list of his government's basic policies, aiming to have fertility treatments covered by health insurance. As it will take a certain amount of time to achieve this, Suga's administration will work on expanding the current subsidy system.
He also aims to expand childcare services, to reduce to zero the waiting lists of children to be accepted by nursery schools.
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