Kodomo teate (子供手当て, child allowance) is a benign, beneficent social policy rooted in horror, having first seen the light of day in certain European countries that had been dangerously depopulated by World War I.
World War II and its carnage helped spread the idea, as did steadily rising postwar prosperity and the conviction it brought that governments must assume more or less responsibility for the happiness and comfort of their citizen masses.
Japan was having none of it until twin crises it should have seen coming were well upon it. These were shōshika (少子化, declining birth rates) and kōreika (高齢化, an aging society). Belatedly introduced a decade or so ago, the national 子供手当て coughed up by an unwilling government proved much too little, way too late. 少子化 and 高齢化 proceeded apace, and still do.