PAYING FOR PEOPLE: Japan’s policies only started to show results about 20 years after they were implemented and cost a lot, Lin Wan-i said

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 03, 2018
By: Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The government aims to raise the nation’s total fertility rate to 1.4 per 1,000 people by 2030, or 230,000 newborns a year, by offering childcare subsidies and other incentives, Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said yesterday.

The government’s policy response to the nation’s graying population includes a monthly childcare subsidy of NT$6,000, Lin said in an interview on Clara Chou’s (周玉蔻) Hit FM morning radio show.

The nation’s declining birthrate has been a long-term trend, with the total fertility rate in 2002 falling from 1.4 to 1.34, he said.

The government did not take action until 2009, when it introduced some subsidies for child-rearing, but the overall policy response was too dispersed and uncoordinated to be effective, Lin said.    [FULL  STORY]