and ground to break in question like the after life dumber and dumber. how can we feed every one. 2 questions for the present future heads filled with ideas. 2 been when we learned something, the hardware and software of our brain changes. so get really for the brain up to 40 to answer to almost everything. starts january 15th on d w. you're watching the w news asia coming up today. japan's demographic crisis and the government's attempts to fix it. the capital tokyo may be crowded, but the country's population is shrinking. now the government is paying families to move to the countryside and help revive rural communities. but will this be a long term solution?

to be done, instead, i believe is to take a long term strategy to raise a salary, to lower the living expenses, including cost for education, and to provide more opportunities for education and employment in rule or areas. ah, i'm showered radian berlin. thanks so much for your company today. japan's government, once families to move out of the crowded capital takyo and has significantly boosted a one time grant to kick things along. it's now worth $1000000.00 yen per child, which is about 7 and a half 1000 us dollars. now the incentive is part of an official push to breathe life into declining towns and villages. a whopping 30 percent of japan's population now lives in great tank york. tens of thousands of people moved there each year, hollowing out other parts of japan,

which have aging populations. let's get more details now on this from dw news, as a reporter, michelle stockman, michelle. great to have you see it. so why is the japanese government doing this? to panis facing a demographic crisis. so big cities like tokyo are magnet to young people because of their high earning opportunities and also educational opportunities. on top of that, japan faces a eating population and also declining birth rate. so with that internal migration to big cities, the small towns and villages that those people are leaving from are dying out. and what that looks like is basically schools where there are no students where a farmer might wonder who's going to take over my farm when i decide to retire or streets lined with shuddered businesses. and in fact, i spoke to an american man who is married to a japanese woman, and they have lived in japan for a number of years in tokyo. he's actually semi retired able to work remotely. and

he and his wife decided to make the wheat to move from tokyo to the countryside. and during that research, it became very apparent to him to so urgently local officials and small towns like the one where he moved to are looking for people to take over businesses and keep their towns alive. there are lots and lots of local businesses that do not have successors. and as long as you have the basic business skills, some experience, the language capability, you can actually apply to take over someone's original business. now you won't do it, turnkey, it won't be right overnight. what will happen is most likely, you'd have to spend at least 6 months, maybe a year, kind of learning from the original owner. but it might turn out to be a fantastic experience. then you can literally take over an existing business when we were contemplating coming down here. although i wasn't really interested in

doing that at the local government authorities were very interested see if i could take over someone local business. so should be possible. mark kennedy, they're speaking to us a bit earlier from japan. michelle, what do families have to do to qualify? so couples or single parents with children under the age of 18, qualify. they have to have a job in the new town. and also they have to stay for 5 years, otherwise they have to pay the money back. so no back seats, you really have to stick it out. and, you know, the point is though, are people actually a, you know, taking advantage of these subsidies? well, the care is actually sweeter and families who do have a new job in the location can actually qualify for up to $3000000.00 more young, which is equivalent to run $22000.00. so we're talking about potentially tens of thousands of dollars to move to new place, but you really have to have that job figured out. you have to either start

a new business, take over a business or be able to work remotely. and how many families have decided to take this quite big lead, michelle? well, this scheme has existed since 2019, so the subsidy to, for each child with lower than so that's why they've boosted it now because they want more people to participate. but if you look at the, the numbers just about 1500 families have participated in the 3 years that it's existed. and in the big picture of greater tokyo, which is a population of 35000000 people. that's just a drop in the bucket. and you know, there may be some families who, who want to get away from the crushing expectations of child care and long work hours in tokyo, high cost of living and go to nature and enjoy that. but the big question is, financially, can people swing it? and going back to marque, he and his wife decided, yes, we can swing it. they actually didn't have kids who moved with them, so they didn't get the subsidy, but they were able to get other subsidies to move her and help finding housing. and

he joined me an interview on a break from his day at the day spot. so you know, he is, he is loving life. he and his wife say they have not looked back. well, i'm not a country boy originally, but this is a beautiful part of japan, so we're right near the sea. also there are mountains and there are lots of hot springs, this particular areas in the adjacent prefecture to where we lives. but both have lots and lots of hot springs, so it's really close to nature. we literally moved from the middle of tokyo to the countryside. so it was a pretty abrupt change. but it's great. the piece of life is a little slower here. and yet we're not too far removed from tokyo. i go up there and part time roll about once every month or 6 weeks. and it's really, it's only an hour and a half plane, right. so it's pretty close, but everything's better down here. it's. it's less expensive, the quality of life is higher. the food is really good and we can grow basically all the vegetables we need. so we don't really buy vegetables anymore. at the

supermarket, we just buy meat and fish. some of ours, one of my sons really likes to fish. so when he comes to visit, he literally goes out and brings home dinner basically every time he comes bringing home the fish. but you know, bringing home the bacon. i think that's the big question for most families beyond the payment you can receive, these towns also offer relocation seminars, personal coaches to help you integrate. but at the end of the day, i think families are just going to have to decide does this make sense for us long term financially? really fascinating story. michelle, stop by now. d. w. news asia report. thanks so much for breaking that down for us. and earlier i spoke with sociologist, doctor, you come in a gal, word, sophia university in tokyo, and i asked her if this could be a sustainable solution to some of japan's long term demographic problems. she pointed out some potential issues with the governments game. so this idea of this

new policy or providing 1000000 japanese yen per, per child, or for a family moving to a new place to a remote area is based on a one time payment. right? well the one time cash payment of one of 1000000. yes. but apparently there is not going to address the long term needs, that a family will face such as cost for education and, and living expenses. so what needs to be done instead, i believe, is to take a long term strategy to raise a salary, to lower the living expenses, including cost for education, and to provide more opportunities for education and employment in rural areas. in japan, as you've hinted, there is facing some real pressures, particularly when it comes to demography, aging populations, a low fertility, right? to many people living in tokyo, not enough people living in rural areas. talk to us about why japan is at this

point right now. so there are 3 types, 4 demographers, there are 3 types of internal migration. that one is i type i curve or migration. meaning that someone is one in one place and a moving to another place never to return. the 2nd type is called is sort of like a you core that someone was born in one place, moving around the but eventually come back to where he or she was born. and the 3rd type is called jaish shape, j shaped migration, meaning that someone was born in one place in but kept keep moving, never to return to where he rushes from. so what we have, what we currently observe is this increase of some sort of i turn it on. and the problem is that a destination of these internal migrations tend to be concentrated in lower cities, namely tokyo. because these places offer

a great opportunities for education and energy and, and our employment. and according to the latest and system of 2020, about 30 percent of the entire population resided in tokyo. and it's as a sion prefecture is so just in doubt about one 3rd of the population is concentrated in the tokyo area. so the real problem is that a destination of internal migration tends to be a lot of cities because it's got more paternity. okay. understand and, and i guess perhaps a lot of women are moving from rural areas into tokyo, in search of employment and better opportunities and perhaps choosing to not have children for whichever reason. what are some of these reasons that perhaps women in japan deciding that having children might not be for them? right, so a parent is currently facing just another very important on challenge key challenge

of lower birth rate. and there are so many factors contributing to a low birth rates in japan among women in japan. but the one important contributor is educational and educational attainment among women. so higher highly educated women tend to post on child birth or, and marriage per se. so that it partly explains that this parents lower birth rate. so higher education increases in women's education, therefore increases in women's participation in labor force. i'd like to see focus slightly finally dr. and asked you, of course about the one issue in the last few years. that's affected everybody around the world, and that is the pandemic. how has the pandemic effected people's attitudes to things like work, life, balance,

and perhaps being more open to leave somewhere that isn't too big city. so the hurdles, the barriers for relocation to remote areas have largely decline during the 19 pandemic because the options are remote work have become more available and the locations of work have become less important. so it, that's, that's one are positive aspect. but as i said earlier, when it comes to relocation is really the, the challenge is to find the employment that allow them to work remotely. as an particularly for 2 adults in one household. there's really a big challenge. so finding a one job for one person is not enough. the family was really decides to to relocate to a remote area. so finding on employment, finding jobs for a 2 persons in one household is a big is

a real challenge. certainly a big challenge, as you say, that was social demographers doctor, you could mean a gallery in toko. we'd really like to thank you for your time and your insights. did i think you in that seat for to day? be sure to check out the other stories on d, w dot com, forward slash asia, or on instagram, facebook and twitter at dw news. i'm jared radian billy, and see tomorrow. with every journey is full of surprises. we've gone all out to give you some tips one day indian with i'm in your northern

most count please. ah, free time is one. very much a line d w travel. you'll go to the special with recognizes where exactly what's the fund and i've learned a lot our culture history, all their d. w. travel extremely worth a visit. ah, ah, can banks continue to finance fossil fuels as german police battle protest is hoping to stop a coal mine being expanded? we'll look closer at the money still flowing into polluting mining projects. ahead

of the world economic forum meeting in dub off the warning not to let the cost of living crisis distract from longer term global risks. this is data we business on robots in berlin. welcome to the program. germany's fossil fuel future brought sharply into focus. dramatic scenes have been beamed around the world as police clare for testers, from the tiny mining village of lute, sir rat, it's due to be demolished, to make way for the expansion of a nearby coal. mine village in germany's western industrial heartland has become a flash point in a long running battle between protest as demanding radical climate change policies and the authorities. the german government wants to phase out cold by 2030, but says it nevertheless, needs the expanded mind. there to make up for lost gas supplies from russia or banks and other financial institutions will play a crucial role in transforming the economy towards the.