Free cows to reverse the shrinking population: Japan
10 Sept 2014 5:05 AM IST
Anyone willing to pack up and move to the remote southern village of 379 residents would get a no-cost calf or 500,000 yen ($4,900) in cash. Mishima’s bovine brainwave has fallen well short of expectations, however.
‘The programme has been going for more than 20 years, and so far there has only been one person who took us up on the cow, and that was two decades ago,’ village official Shingo Hidaka told AFP, adding the cash had only a handful of takers. The town’s plucky bid to reverse its demographic drain
may be unusual, but it is not alone.
In an effort to lure newcomers, small communities across Japan are offering new arrivals everything from sacks of rice and school lunches to no-cost medical care and free entry at the local hot spring -- a hugely popular pastime.
But the mostly ineffective moves have proved no match for the twin threats of a rapidly ageing population and one of the world’s lowest birthrates. Japan’s countryside is emptying out at an alarming rate.
‘The programme has been going for more than 20 years, and so far there has only been one person who took us up on the cow, and that was two decades ago,’ village official Shingo Hidaka told AFP, adding the cash had only a handful of takers. The town’s plucky bid to reverse its demographic drain
may be unusual, but it is not alone.
In an effort to lure newcomers, small communities across Japan are offering new arrivals everything from sacks of rice and school lunches to no-cost medical care and free entry at the local hot spring -- a hugely popular pastime.
But the mostly ineffective moves have proved no match for the twin threats of a rapidly ageing population and one of the world’s lowest birthrates. Japan’s countryside is emptying out at an alarming rate.
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