Nagi Town Reveals Its Secret To Having More Babies In Japan

NAGI, Japan—Mayor Masachika Oku is concerned about the exhaustion of children in this remote town. “They are being chased by visitors with cameras every day,” he said.

Visitors, including Japan’s leader, are making the journey in search of a valuable secret that may lurk here: how to make more babies.

Women in Nagi, a town of about 5,700 people, on average have more than two children. That figure makes him stand out in a country where the average is closer to one than two.

Fewer than 800,000 children were born in Japan last year, the lowest number since comparable records were first kept in 1899. It was about half of the nearly 1.6 million deaths on record.

For three decades, the government has attempted an Angel Plan, a New Angel Plan, a Child and Child Raising Animation Plan and more, without much discernible difference. Some frustrated officials have concluded that the only next step is to go on a pilgrimage to Nagi, the village upon which the fertility gods have smiled.

Here they meet people like Yuri Takatori, 35, who is raising four children.

“It’s quite common here to see a family with three or four children,” said Ms Takatori, holding her 7-month-old Kippei on her lap.

She said her husband works long hours in a factory that makes industrial refrigerators and earns between $1,800 and $2,200 a month.

Despite a tight budget and a lack of help at home, Ms. Takatori said she felt parenting was manageable. She credited the help from the city, such as free health care for all children, as well as the support of other mothers and elderly women who help care for the children.

In a park filled with play equipment, Ai Todaka, 35, saw her 6-year-old daughter Riko holding her younger brother, Aoi, 3, as they went down a long, winding slide together.

“The eldest begged for a baby because she envied her friends with many siblings,” Ms. Todaka said. “That’s why I had another one.”

Until a few years ago, Nagi’s claim to fame served as a model for the mystical “hidden leaf village” of ninjas depicted in Masashi Kishimoto’s “Naruto” manga series, hailing from the city. It also has a museum dedicated to an extinct snail.

Then local media noted the city’s birth rate. In 2019, it reached 2.95, the average number of babies a woman would deliver if conditions lasted permanently that year. The number dropped somewhat over the next two years, but was still 2.68 in 2021, the latest year for which data is available. Japan overall sits at around 1.3, while the figure in South Korea was just 0.78 last year.

As visitors began to show up to witness the Nagi miracle, the city council began billing delegations the equivalent of $73 plus an additional $7.30 per person. Credit cards are not accepted.

Still, groups continue to arrive at a rate of seven or eight a month, according to local officials. It has become even more agitated recently after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida put the fight against low birthrates at the top of his agenda in January.

On a recent Sunday morning, Mr. Kishida, a father of three, made his own pilgrimage. He flew to the nearest provincial capital and, with the governor in tow, made a 90-minute drive through the mountains. She visited a center where families get help with parenting, talked to the mothers and held up some babies for the cameras.

Mr. Kishida and his delegation were not billed for their tour, Nagi official Eiji Moriyasu said, explaining that Tokyo is already doing its part by providing subsidies. He said everyone else except journalists have to pay.

A few days after the prime minister’s visit, a bus of South Korean officials arrived in the city with 20,000 yen, about $150, in cash in an envelope. After handing over the money, the Miryang City delegation listened to an hour-long lecture through an interpreter and took a tour of the children’s center.

Visitors learn that parents pay no more than $420 a month for day care for their first child, half that price for the second child, and free for the third. Parents receive the equivalent of $1,000 a year for each child in high school. Caretakers are also assisted by elderly women who look after the children for a nominal fee.

“We would like to make policies like this,” said Kang Mu-seung, a member of the South Korean delegation. He is the father of a 7-year-old boy, but said he did not plan to have another child because his wife also works.

Nagi officials say it took two decades to raise the birth rate and required sacrifices such as cutting public works projects. The town assembly reduced its membership from 14 to 10.

On the same day as the Koreans, another delegation from the Japanese island of Shikoku appeared. Mr. Moriyasu, the village official, gave them his sermon on encouraging more births.

“It’s like working on a diet or studying,” he said. “You try really, really, really long before you hit a tipping point.”

Mayor Oku said he was thinking of trying to combine such delegations so that children don’t have to deal with camera-wielding visitors as often.

Nagi still has more deaths than births each year. But it has managed to keep its population stable by attracting young couples. A promotion now through March 31 offers the equivalent of up to $4,400 for couples in their 20s who register their marriage with the city and up to $2,200 for couples in their 30s.

Nozomi Sakaino, a 34-year-old mother of three, said the availability of childcare and a job search system allowed her to fit in with odd part-time jobs, such as teaching older people to use a smartphone.

“In Nagi, mothers are like mothers to everyone. We take care of each other’s children,” he said.