Government to pay 420,000 yen to couples who make babies
December 18th, 2008 by James
If you’re planning to help Japan stem its declining birthrate, it might be a good idea to wait a couple months so your kid will be born after October of next year:
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to raise the lump-sum payment for childbirth and child rearing from the current 350,000 yen to 420,000 yen from October 2009, it was learned.
The plan was submitted to a meeting of the Social Security Council, an advisory body to the ministry, on Friday.
As a decision to increase the payment from 350,000 yen to 380,000 yen from January 2009 has already been made, the additional sum will be 40,000 yen.
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That’s pretty cool. The 350,000 we got with our first child really helped with birth-related costs. Naturally 420,000 would help even more.
Yet another original idea from the J politicians? NO.
Have a problem? Throw money at it.
Didn’t work? Throw MORE money at it.
Still didn’t work? Throw EVEN MORE money at it, then fund some more useless construction projects nobody wants or will use to “boost the economy”.
This country is doomed.
Agreed. Though, rather than throwing money at the problem, I’d say they’re throwing debt at the problem. Fund your own 420,000 by having your tax yen buy more JGBs!
How about making the employment situation for pregnant/women with children better. That would surely make things better than increasing the “one time” payment.
Helpful but STILL just a drop in the ole bucket!!
We had our daughter in Korea (cheap medical costs, cheap living costs for the period) and moved back to Japan with the same visas/gaijin cards and we still got the 350,000 award prize. We have two Chinese friends who did the same (gave birth in China, came back and got the money). It’s a great system for those of us having children, and much more than the amount of taxes I’ve ever paid from employment here.
Hey, Alex, how much was the total cost in Korea. We are considering this having in mind otrageously high costs in Japan.Is the quality of the Korean hospitals and doctors the same as Japan?
It cost about 80,000 yen. (800,000 won, exchange rate was about 1,000 won per 100 yen at the time)
We had great service/check-ups. I can’t compare it to Japan because I have no experience in Japanese hospitals, except for when we paid 3000 yen for a 5 minute emergency room visit for a non-emergency at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night when the rest of the hospital was closed.
Are you or your spouse Korean, though?
My husband is Korean, I’m from Central Europe.Thank you, this sounds really encouraging!
You’ll be fine then. The woman in the private room next to ours was from the Philippines and her husband was Korean.
Does this apply if both parents are foreigners?
My wife and I are both foreigners, so it does apply.
The mother must be covered by Kokumin Kenko Hoken or Kenko Hoken to collect this benefit.
In case of Kokumin Kenko Hoken, the mother must be an insured. In case of Konko Hoken, the mother must be either the main insured or the dependent family of an insured.
What are the costs for child birth in Japan if you have company insurance? I would expect in the neighborhood of ~1,000,000 yen but I have no real idea. Anyone?
According to this page, delivery costs are around 300,000 to 400,000 yen.
http://info.pref.fukui.jp/kokusai/tagengo/html_e/konnatoki/6ninsin/a_hiyou/hiyou.html
Well, damn that’s a lot of money…if it were USD. It won’t last the whole time the little lady is away from work. And who’s to say that there’s a job to be had after she recovers. Not to say they have too much time to “recover” from a pregnancy, but Japanese women do. They wait up 18 years before renentering the work force again(I don’t know rather this is forced against their will…but lets assume it means ust that). And what of the Japanese men that don’t get a good moderate to high paying Job. Is he going to get an extra 450,000? What about getting together to begin with. We all know that Japanese have a hard time finding that “one.” I mean even there parents are forcing themselves to find their 30 something year old child a proper “mate.” As if they were animals instead of their children. True communication between the sexes has changed, but the traditions are still being put into play here. Not that a bit of traditional values aren’t called for, but when it gets in the way of expressing each others feelings it has gone too far. Money can solve the problem developing there just sugar coat it.
A typical idiot’s description and prescription of another culture.
In Japan, the insurance (health insurance) doesn’t cover the costs of giving birth to babies in hospital…since the parents would be forced to pay out of pocket, such payments are made to cover the cost of giving birth to the baby in hospital.
I don’t like the idea of giving cash incentives, but please be aware that the money that the article is talking about is about the money they give to cover the cost of giving birth to a baby in hospital—otherwise, the couple would have to pay that much money out of pocket.
We had similar measures taken in France and it didn’t prove very efficient, as natality matters. But a financial help is always good for young families.