[HN Gopher] Japanese government offers families 1M yen a child t...
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Japanese government offers families 1M yen a child to leave Tokyo
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 53 points
Date : 2023-01-03 14:56 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| $7648
| bamboozled wrote:
| I hate to say it but the "ideas" from the Japanese government
| lately are just terrible.
|
| I'm concerned, I know this ageist, but those in government itself
| are just too old.
| falcolas wrote:
| I wonder if we'll see this in the US as the midwest food
| infrastructure starts to require replacements as the older
| generation dies off.
|
| Younger generations, even in the midwest, are gravitating to
| office work as opposed to the farms (there aren't a lot of tech
| companies compared to the coasts, but there are enough).
| FatActor wrote:
| I drove around New Mexico four years ago and there are a number
| of ghost towns between Las Cruces and Roswell, these are towns
| that have nothing but boarded up buildings and no people. A
| waiter in a restaurant explained to me that once the population
| drops below a certain level the grocery stores disappear then
| the schools and finally the post offices and police where
| people are expected to drive to the next town for any of the
| above. At the point people just migrate to a city even if they
| don't sell their houses (which seems wrong to me like who would
| just abandon a house?) but I didn't actually stop in the towns,
| i just drove through. A handful of remote techies aren't going
| to bring these ghost towns back but they might prevent others
| from collapsing.
| type0 wrote:
| So what, this will not solve anything, they should reduce the
| taxes for companies in rural areas as does Norway.
| michaelteter wrote:
| It doesn't seem like nearly enough money to convince someone to
| leave their home and job.
|
| The reverse might work - offering companies big incentives to
| move from Tokyo to the declining areas (and take some of their
| employees with them). After all, one of the primary reasons
| people flock to the big cities is because of the availability of
| work.
| agtorre wrote:
| I'm not sure if Japan also became more remote work friendly
| during COVID, I feel like this could be a good opportunity for
| those types of employees
| darkwizard42 wrote:
| From what I have heard from my (admittedly few) friends
| there, it hasn't changed much outside of the pure tech
| sector. The culture of being in the office hasn't changed as
| much as it has in the US.
| johnwalkr wrote:
| Within the tech sector lots of companies went permanent,
| partial work from home (need to be in the office a couple
| of days a week or month depending on the company). Some
| examples:
|
| - Office downsized to only hold 30% of staff, and you can
| work from home as little or as much as you want.
|
| - Need to come a few consecutive days per month, travel
| expenses from anywhere in Japan (within reason) are
| reimbursed.
|
| I also know a handful of people in non-tech (but not what I
| would call salaryman/desk jockey jobs) that went to 75% or
| more work from home.
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| How can you proof that you are present after hours, if you
| are only remote employed? Remote work sounds thoroughly
| uncompatible with Japanese working culture.
| awillen wrote:
| It says that you can find a new job in your new location,
| continue to work your current job remotely or start a new
| business to qualify. Seems like the remote work category would
| be the easiest sell.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| > It doesn't seem like nearly enough money to convince someone
| to leave their home and job.
|
| It's gotta be intended to push people who are on the fence over
| to the "move" side, not to get people who've not been
| considering it to decide to move.
| [deleted]
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| 1M Yen is about 7500 USD.
| scifibestfi wrote:
| A lot of people are missing that it's per child and it's not just
| the Y=1m / $7500:
|
| "The payment - which comes on top of up to Y=3m already available
| in financial support - will be offered to families living in the
| 23 "core" wards of Tokyo and the neighbouring commuter-belt
| prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa."
| rchaud wrote:
| 'Per child' doesn't seem significant as the average family has
| 2 kids max. Moving costs, rent and mortgage amounts would be
| interesting to compare the $7500 against.
| Labo333 wrote:
| I think the greatest incentive would be to normalize remote work.
|
| Offering tax benefits to companies that move out of Tokyo might
| be effective but only in the long term.
| rchaud wrote:
| Very hard to effect that change if working culture is built on
| the 'visibility' of late hours and long nights in the office.
| yamtaddle wrote:
| If they can shift pretending to work in an office to
| pretending to be "online", that actually might be a pretty
| big QOL improvement for much of the population, basically for
| free, and maybe even at some savings overall if it takes
| pressure off Tokyo.
| user-extended wrote:
| Most people aren't as enthusiastic about remote work as people
| are on Hacker News. You cannot make teachers, most doctors,
| janitors, drivers, etc. Work From Home.
|
| Besides, it's one thing to Work from Home from a beautiful
| place vs. a middle of nowhere town. I don't see many people on
| Hacker News moving to Nebraska or the Sahara to Work From Home.
| cesarvarela wrote:
| I think the opportunity cost of leaving a city like Tokyo for an
| "unfashionable" one as the article mentions is huge. Seems like
| it will enforce inequality because rich people won't leave, and
| people is where opportunities are, friends, partners, co-
| founders, etc.
| sovietmudkipz wrote:
| 1 yen is == 0.0076 USD
|
| 1M yen is == 7643.65 USD
| knaik94 wrote:
| I converted the value to USD to see if it changes the article
| title. 1,000,000 Japanese Yen equals 7,646.05 United States
| Dollar Jan 3, 3:27 PM UTC.
|
| Japanese government offers families 7,500 dollars a child to
| leave Tokyo.
|
| I don't think the work culture in Japan allows the teleworking
| situation that the government expects. The goal of 10,000 people
| out of 13 million by 2027 also seems wildly ineffective for the
| described objective. I don't know if I agree with even 3 million
| yen being generous for this kind of relocation. There's a
| condition where the people have to return the money if they
| relocate within five years.
|
| Is there a cultural motivation I am missing?
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| What is one place that is near Tokyo that would be of "milder"
| inconvenience that the government most likely wants them to go
| to?
|
| Is it that the population of Tokyo just loves the convenience?
| Would be hard to ask people to give up what they know for an
| alternative.
| chaorace wrote:
| I think the goal is injecting bodies into the surrounding
| economies, rather being an attempt to substantially reduce the
| population of Tokyo proper.
|
| -10,000 is trivial compared to 13 million, but even +20 to a
| nearby farming community _is_ substantial (then multiply that
| impact by x500).
| acapybara wrote:
| Yeah but 1M yen isn't that much...
| [deleted]
| alberth wrote:
| FYI ...
|
| Y= 1,000,000 = $ 7,650 (USD)
|
| Y= 1,000,000 = EUR 7,250 (Euro)
|
| Y= 1,000,000 = PS 6,350 (GBP)
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(page generated 2023-01-03 23:01 UTC)