日本將爲新婚夫婦發放4萬元補貼

Newly married couples can receive up to 600,000 yen to cover their rent and other costs to start a new life from next April if they live in a municipality adopting Japan's newlywed support program, government sources said Sunday.

日本政府消息人士9月20日透露，居住在實施新婚補助計劃的市町村的新婚夫婦，從2021年4月起可以獲得最高60萬日元（約合人民幣3.9萬元）的補貼來開啓新生活，用以支付房租和其他費用。

As the nation's ultralow birth rate is attributed mainly to the tendency that people marry late or stay unmarried, the government will try to boost marriages by enhancing the program to provide a larger sum and cover more couples, said the sources at the Cabinet Office.

日本內閣府的消息稱，由於日本的超低出生率主要被歸結於人們晚婚或不婚，政府將嘗試通過該項目來爲更多新婚夫婦提供更大數額的補助金，從而提高結婚率。

To be eligible, both husband and wife will have to be under age 40 as of the registered date of marriage and have a combined income of less than 5.4 million yen, up from age 35 and 4.8 million yen under the current conditions for aid of up to 300,000 yen.

申請人需滿足以下條件：夫妻雙方在登記結婚之日須未滿40歲，且家庭收入低於540萬日元（約合人民幣35萬元）。新規較目前的新婚補助條件有所放寬，當前這兩項條件分別爲登記結婚當日須未滿35歲，家庭收入低於480萬日元，補助金額則爲最高30萬日元。

Only 281 municipalities, or 15 percent of all cities, towns and villages in Japan, had adopted the program as of July as they must shoulder half the expenses, but in a bid to increase the number, the central government will bear two-thirds from fiscal 2021, the sources said.

消息人士稱，截至7月，日本國內實施該項目的有281個市町村，僅佔所有市町村的15%左右，因爲當地政府須承擔一半的費用。消息人士稱，爲了提升該政策的覆蓋率，中央政府將從2021財年起承擔三分之二的費用。

The program is part of government efforts to address the low birth rate as married couples tend to have two children, even though the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime was 1.36 last year with a record-low 865,000 babies born.

此項計劃是日本政府爲解決低出生率問題而推出的舉措之一，因爲已婚夫婦通常都會生育兩個小孩，而去年出生的新生兒數量只有86.5萬，每名婦女一生平均生育1.36個小孩，創下歷史新低。

An economic incentive is deemed effective to encourage people to marry since 29.1 percent of single men aged 25 to 34 and 17.8 percent of single women cited lack of marriage funds as a reason they stayed unmarried in a 2015 survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

經濟激勵被視爲鼓勵人們結婚的有效措施，因爲國立社會保障和人口問題研究所2015年的一項調查顯示，29.1%的25歲至34歲的單身男性和17.8%的單身女性將缺少結婚基金作爲不婚的理由。