Cash for Kids

Catholic Culture: Amid a projected demographic collapse that will see Japan’s population shrink from 127.6 million in 2006 to under 100 million in 2050, Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to encourage births through government payments of $3,300 per year per child from birth to junior high school-- in addition to the $3,700 that Japanese parents are already given upon the birth of a child.