Repopulating a Japanese town

As the Japanese populace shrinks and ages, and young people leave the suburbs and rural areas for cities, more and more communities are becoming ghost towns, with abandoned houses and declining populations. The municipality of Okutama, on the outskirts of Tokyo, has come up with a novel solution: Give away houses to young families for free. Ben Tracy talks with the man in charge of giving away homes, who isn't averse to playing Cupid to get people to move into his shrinking town.

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[Slyerkid]

You forgot to mention, Japan literally pays people to have kids.

[devonrusinek]

When everyone has died from old age, I guess there's not much else to say except *it's free real estate*

[lothean]

Sad, in my country, people want to move to the city where they can not afford to live. I want to move to the country where I can live.

[doingtime]

This is happening in all big cities with educated people, it's just such a big challenge to have kids nowadays that less and less people decide to take on it. Corporations squeeze you to the bone, so kids are seen like a second job, who wants more work? If the the workweek was around 32 hours (and really 32 hours, no cellphone emergency calls and such) I bet more people would have kids just out of boredom. Plus you get to actually enjoy your family because you actually have free time.
We put ourselves in this situation, greed has taken over the world.

[patricksanders]

So You want to increase populations? Heres a few ideas. Make it less expensive to raise and educate the next generation. Give a living wage to parents so they wont have to juggle work and child rearing. Advance Whole Family Homes and allow Seniors to help with Child rearing and growth. Give tax breaks for adopting. Make school lunchs free, filling and nutritional. Setup and sustain social outlets for all levels of age and growth. Provide clear pathways to a sustaining and fufilling life by partnering schools with vocations and professionals.
Give HOPE that their child's future will be better than ours.

[arturo]

This is literally "it's free real estate"

[SharapovaFan]

"Free houses in Japan..."
*Weebs have entered the chat.*

[joepho]

“ a demographic bomb is going to go off in japan” nice wording

[kimk]

There are no jobs in rural areas, that's why people move to the cities in the first place. People don't want to live in rural areas and stay POOR.

[sparta]

"The country is running out of people" : Shows a subway car with people packed like sardines.

[khonhlo]

Just to give you all some context. Their GDP hasnt grown in nearly 2 decades and its shrinking. Worst of all they are working crazy hours with a lot of inefficiency. The system is rotten to some extent and the government have done much to solve some of these problems.

[RandyLy]

If I invest early now and become financially independent, I could live here for free if I let passive income cover my living expenses. Sounds good

[gardensofthegods]

I feel very sad for Japan's slowly dying culture . Same problem in Italy.... cost of living and raising kids is too expensive just like in Japan . That's a great program giving away those houses to lure younger people there. The only problem with a lot of those houses they should is the older ones and the traditional ones are not properly insulated and so are very cold in the winter, hot n humid in summer .

[midnite]

"The rich make money and the poor make babies"

[robertheller]

Hentai protagonist: it my time to shine

[azzamfs]

Good luck to Masahiro Yamada and the Okutama City Hall team! Hope you guys can achieve your goals!

[loveCUsmile]

I would LOVE to live in a small Japanese town. It looks so peaceful.

[MrYang]

Get me some wi-fi and I will move immediately

[DarkSignal]

4:46 Imagine someone in your family dying and having THAT perform the funeral! Not sure if I should cry or laugh. At least nobody will tell what causes the tears to flow 😂

[tekkenfan]

They left out that young Japanese people are not interested in dating or even having sex. They like to be independent. Cost to much to date, marry, kids, buying case all over the world