美报：日本政府关注本国孩子出生率

　　According to the Washington Post of September 26, Japan'sgovernment has been paying more attention to the nation’s fertilityrate, which influences the country's economic development。

　　The coastal region of Fukui has Japan's biggest share ofdual-income households, its highest ratio of working women and itslowest unemployment. What it doesn't have is enough babies。

　　So the prefectural government recently started the FukuiMarriage-Hunting Cafe, a Web site for singles, to help stem the fallingbirthrate - which is damaging the economy. As an added incentive,couples who agree to marry will get cash or gifts。

　　Japan's fertility rate has dropped to 1.34 children per woman,shrinking the pool of workers and consumers, and increasing the burdenon younger employees to pay for an aging population。

　　The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimatesthat the number of working-age Japanese will drop to 81 million thisyear, compared with the peak of 87 million in 1995. The average numberof children that Japanese women have compares with Canada's 1.6 andFrance's 2, according to the World Bank. The 2.1 rate in the US isconsidered the minimum for a developed nation to maintain a constantpopulation。

　　Key to boosting the birthrate is getting couples to marry.Three-fourths of the decline in Japan's fertility rate between 1975 and2005 can be explained by more women delaying or forgoing marriage,according to Miho Iwasawa, a researcher at the National Institute ofPopulation and Social Security Research in Tokyo。

　　Census data show that 32 percent of women aged 30 to 34 were unwed in 2005, more than twice the percentage 15 years earlier。

　　The Democratic Party of Japan came to power last year promising tolighten the burden of rearing children. Families began receiving monthlyallowances of $150 a child this fiscal year and can now send theirchildren to public high school for free. Prime Minister Naoto Kanappointed Koichiro Gemba to a cabinet-level post to counter thedeclining birthrate. Kan had also pushed his staff to leave work at 6 pmfor weekday dates。

　　Even so, national and local governments need to reach theunmarried, whose rising proportion in the country is the biggest factorbehind the shortage of children, said Shigeki Matsuda, a sociologist atDai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo。

　　据《华盛顿邮报》9月26日报道，日本政府目前一直关注本国的生育率问题，日本生育率严重影响着本国经济发展。

　　沿海的福井地区有着日本最多的双收入家庭，最高的妇女就业率，以及最低的居民失业率。这里唯一缺少的是孩子。

　　为此，福井地方政府最近建立了一个面向单身人士的婚姻介绍网站，以阻止出生率的不断下降，因为这正对经济造成损害。另外，作为激励措施，愿意结婚的伴侣可以得到现金或小礼物的奖励。

　　日本的生育率已经降到了平均每个妇女生1.34个孩子，这使得劳动力和消费人群不断减少，年轻劳动者养活老龄人口的压力越来越大。

　　据经合组织估计，日本的劳动力今年将降到8100万人，而在1995年曾达到过8700万人的顶峰。根据世界银行的数字，相比日本平均每个妇女(1.34个)的生育率，加拿大是1.6个，法国是2个。美国是2.1个，这个数字被认为是发达国家维持人口稳定所需的最低限。

　　提高出生率的关键是提高结婚率。东京国立社会保障和人口问题研究所的研究员岩泽三甫说，日本在1975年到2005年之间生育率的下降，有四分之三是由于妇女延迟或放弃结婚。

　　统计显示，在2005年，30到34岁之间的日本女性有32%未婚，比15年前翻了一倍还多。

　　民主党去年上台时承诺要减轻抚养孩子的负担。从本财政年度开始，每家每个孩子可领到每月150美元的津贴，公立中学还实行免费。首相菅直人派松浦晃一郎在内阁专门负责出生率下降的问题，菅直人还要求政府雇员六点就下班去约会。

　　东京第一生命经济研究所的社会学家尽田茂木说，即便如此，未婚群体仍是中央和地方政府亟须关注的问题，不婚比例的上升是导致日本出生率下降的最主要因素。