The plan was part of a larger "relocation plan" aimed at getting more women to choose life outside Tokyo, but now the government is removing the part where women are offered money if they move to the countryside.
According to Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's largest newspapers, around eleven million unmarried Japanese men live outside Tokyo. For unmarried women, the figure is 9.1 million. And it is this imbalance that the government wants to address.
The money, equivalent to approximately 42,000 Swedish kronor, was intended to serve as a carrot to get women to want to move and settle elsewhere. The government also promised to cover train tickets to various matchmaking events.
Criticism of the government's plan has not been slow to emerge. Social media users have loudly expressed their discontent.
"Do they still not understand? This is something that people who only see women as valuable if they have children would come up with.", writes a user on platform X.
Many Japanese rural towns risk "completely disappearing" because fewer and fewer women in their 20-30s live there, according to a Japanese study on the subject.
