Secrets inagi
Nagi Mayor Masachika Oku is worried that children in this remote town will be tired of having to pick up customers to take photos every day.
According to the Wall Street Journal, tourists, including the Japanese leader, are flocking here to learn the precious secret hidden in Nai: How to make people have more children.
Women inagi average to have more than 2 children. This number makes the town with about 5,700 people the center of attention because Japanese women have an average fertility rate of nearly 1.
Less than 800,000 babies were born in Japan last year, the lowest since the data was kept in 1899. This figure is only half of the nearly 1.6 million deaths recorded.
For more than 3 decades, the Japanese Government has tried the plans of the Angels, the new plans of the Angels... without creating many obvious differences. Some officials said that the final step was to Nagi, the town where the god of reproduction smiled.
Here, they meet people like Yuri Takatori, 35, who is raising four boys. Its quite common to see a family with three or four children here, Takatori said while caressing for her 7-month-old baby.
Takatori's husband works at an industrial refrigeration factory, earning about $1,800 to $2,200/month.
Despite a tight budget and no domestic help, Takatori still feels she can handle raising her children. The mother of 35 received support from the town in providing free health care for all children, along with help from mothers and older women in the town to take care of their children.
In a playground full of toys in Nagi, Ai Todaka, 35, looks at her 6-year-old daughter Riko, who is hugging her 3-year-old brother Aoi, playing ice andskating together. "The older child asked to have a baby because he was jealous of his friends who had many siblings. That's why I had more children" - Todaka shared.
A few years ago, Nagi's fame was in becoming a model for the mysterious "hiding leaf village" of the Ninh Ninh Ninh described in the comic book series " naruto" by Masashi Kishimoto - who came from the town. agi also has a museum for an extinct snail species.
After that, local media focused on the town's birth rate. In 2019, this figure reached 2.95. The birth rate inagi decreased slightly in the next 2 years but remained high, reaching 2.68 in 2021, the most recent year for which data was available. Overall, the birth rate in Japan was around 1.3, while this figure in Korea was only 0.78 last year.
Special attention
When tourists began to come to learn about the signs of Nagi, the town hall began charging the groups an amount of $73, plus $7.30 per person.
However, groups still flock here at the rate of 7 or 8 groups/month. There have been even larger delegations recently after Prime Minister Kishida Fumio pushed for the low birth rate in Japan in the parliamentary program.
Mr. Kishida recently flew to the nearest provincial capital and drove a 9-minute trip through the mountains to Nai with the governor. He visited a center to help families raise children, chat with mothers and hold some babies.
A few days after the Japanese Prime Minister's visit, a bus carrying South Korean officials entered the town with 20,000 yen, about $150 in cash in envelope. After giving the money, the Korean delegation from Miryang city listened to the program's introduction for 1 hour and visited the children's center.
Guests to Nai were told that parents in the town spend no more than 420 USD/month on childcare for their first child, half of that price for their second child and no fee for their third child.
Parents also receive an amount of money equivalent to 1,000 USD/year for each of their children in high school. Parents also receive help from older women to help take care of their children with a small budget.
We want to make that policy, said Kang Mu-seung, a member of the South Korean delegation. Kang has a 7-year-old son and does not plan to have additional children because his wife is also working.
Officials Nagi shared that it will take 2 decades to increase the birth rate in the town and many sacrifices, such as cutting down on public works projects. The town council also had to reduce personnel from 14 to 10.
On the same day as the Korean delegation, there was a delegation from Japan's Shikoku Island. Mr. Moriyasu, aagi official, introduced the encouragement of having more children. "It's like adopting a diet or studying. You work very, very hard for a long time before reaching the breakout point," he said.
The Mayor Oku is thinking about gathering groups to visit Nai so that children do not have to deal with camera-carrying guests regularly.
Each year,agi still has more deaths than births. However, the town has made efforts to maintain a stable population by attracting young couples.
The current incentive program, which runs until March 31, provides the equivalent of $4,400 for couples in their 20s who register to get married in the town and up to $2,200 for couples in their 30s.
Nozomi Sakaino, 34, with three sons, said that the available childcare services and the system suitable for her job allowed her to do part-time jobs that were not regular. Inagi, mothers are like mothers to everyone. We take care of each other's children," she said.
