Talking with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike on Children
I had the opportunity to chat with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike recently. She wasn’t overbearing at all and laughed when I said, let’s do some girls talk here. Ten years into leading a city with a $1 trillion economy, she says she plans to keep going for the next term. She’s already promoted tourism, startups, greenery and sustainable energy. And last year, Tokyo reversed Japan’s decade-long declining birth rate, actually growing by 0.3%, tiny but a dramatic blip coming after a giant dropping swerve.
“I have always put children first in my policy,” Koike said.
And the programs the Tokyo government offers to encourage people to have children are impressive. Some people are moving into the city just to get the benefits: 60,000 yen ($375) for pregnancy, and another 60,000 for a 1-year-old or 2-year-old child; separately 180,000 yen ($1,125) for each birth. Medical care for children and youngsters is basically free. A teen pays 200 yen ($1.25) for each doctor’s visit. Tokyo offers up to 100,000 yen ($625) to help with medical treatment for reducing the physical pain of childbirth. Koike says people genuinely fear that pain. Affordable housing and free nursery care are also offered for those in need.
Analysts say it’s too early to tell if the reversal in childbirths will really stick or fade. It will take years to decide for sure. But, for one, Tokyo boasts an abundant fiscal base. Americans who hear about Koike’s policies literally gasp in surprise and envy.
Charles McClean, assistant professor of political science at Yale University, who studies Japan, says childbirth is “a hard metric” and nobody has really figured out “the magic” to reverse that, but stresses Koike has done a good job of spreading the word about her policies and programs meant to support children.
“I think population is the foundation of a society. If the population declines, social services will also decline, down to bus services. There won’t be any taxpayers either. Even if you go to a hospital, there won’t be any doctors or nurses, just beds,” Koike told me.
The great cities of the world may build roads, skyscrapers and other infrastructure. But all that will be nothing without people.
“People move society. That is the basic of the basics,” she said.
