Japan faces a baby-making crisis. Does this small town hold the secret to solving it?

With double the birth rate of the rest of Japan, Naga was hailed as a miracle – and even became a tourist attraction – for bucking the national trend

But experts say the baby boom has more to do with free medical care for children, cash handouts for parents and subsidised housing and day care

Reading Time:3 minutes

A young Japanese father pushes his twin babies in a stroller. Births in Japan hit an all-time low last year. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 1:03pm, 8 Mar 2023

In a Japanese town with fewer than 6,000 people, the birth rate is double what it is in the country overall; it’s nearly three, whereas the rest of Japan is only slightly above one.

That’s as the population has fallen in the country over the last three decades. Last year, births in Japan fell to an all-time low, falling below 800,000 for the first time.

“It is now or never when it comes to policies regarding births and child-rearing,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last month in a dire speech. “It is an issue that simply cannot wait any longer.”

That’s why some call what’s happening in the town of Nagi a miracle, The Wall Street Journal’s Mijo Inada reported last week, with people even treating the booming population as a tourist attraction. Nagi’s town hall charges delegations for tours.

But rather than a miracle, it’s likely social safety net programmes, including policies engineered toward affordable childcare, that’s helping the population grow.