Tokyo is looking to begin offering a subsidy for epidural childbirths in the 2025 fiscal year as a way of reducing the burden on women looking to have children, which, if it materializes, would make it the first such move in the country at the prefecture-level.
Such a subsidy was one of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's campaign promises when she ran for her position last year. She has noted how it would be one way for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to take some burden off Tokyoites seeking to have children, but hesitating due to various reasons, and for the city to reverse its declining birthrate.
“I’ve heard many people say that they had their first child and never want to experience the same pain they felt again,” she said in June. “In that sense we must protect the mother’s body and at the same time create an economy and support system where women would want to have a second and third child.”
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