The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to provide families in the capital with a monthly allowance of around ¥5,000 ($38) per child through age 18 regardless of household income levels, as part of efforts to address the rapidly falling birthrate in Japan.
With official estimates set to show that annual births in the country fell below 800,000 for the first time last year, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike has said her government needs to make its own responses and that the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has lacked countermeasures that have an immediate effect.
