Discounts to promote procreation

Japan is contemplating offering larger families special shopping discounts to encourage procreation. Decreasing birth rates and a rapidly aging population have led the Japanese government to believe that lowering costs for families with more children will encourage other families to have more. The government is contemplating the issue of identity cards to families with children, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said. These cards will ensure discounts at stores that are participating in the program. The stores themselves would decide on the size of the discounts.

Meanwhile, the government is also considering offering tax rebates to ease the financial burden for parents of young children. Japan 's population shrank in the year ended October for the first time since 1945. The country's fertility rate fell to just under 1.29 in 2004, an all-time low. A rate of 2.1 is apparently needed to keep the population from declining.