Koei Tecmo Pays Employees to Have Kids

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Koei Tecmo Pays Employees to Have Kids


Videogame company Koei Tecmo [http://www.koeitecmo.co.jp/] is doing its bit to combat Japan's population decline by paying its employees to knock boots and have kids.

Japan's population is shrinking at an alarming pace. The birth rate is holding steady at about the break-even point but has nonetheless dropped off precipitously over the past half-century, according to statistics published by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications [http://www.stat.go.jp/English/data/handbook/c02cont.htm#cha2_2], which predicts that the country's current population of 127 million people will decline to under 100 million by 2050.

The obvious solution is to have more kids but for some reason the Japanese don't seem particularly interested in bumping uglies in the name of the Emperor. The obvious solution to that? Give them money to do it.

So says Koei Tecmo, the company behind franchises like Dynasty Warriors [http://www.deadoralivegame.com/]. It's offering $1000 to employees who have their first child and $2000 to those having their second, but the real money comes with bundle of joy number three, which will earn the lucky parents a $20,000 payout.

$1000 is not a good enough reason to have a kid. $23,000 sure doesn't justify having three. But if you already have two kids and then you get a job at Koei Tecmo and they want to fork over 20 large so you'll have one more, that's a different situation entirely. Going from two kids to three kids is like jumping from the 50th floor instead of the 40th, so why not? A $20 thousand bonus for some full-contact chesterfield rugby sounds like a good deal to me.

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5283916/koei-tecmo-encourages-employees-to-have-babies-with-money], with thanks to reaper_2k9 for the tip


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Brotherofwill

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The Japanese people would rather invest in robots than try to get their population to breed or encourage immigration.
 

Haydyn

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Mar 27, 2009
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Sigh, if only America had this problem. Call me a radical, but there are just too many people in front of me in the line at 7/11. Must, slim, down, numbers.

I don't think a 20k bonus is the right way to get people to have kids. Think about what could happen if people are having children for the wrong reasons. Not to mention 9 months pregnancy + 18 years is going to cost more than 20k.
 

dochmbi

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In every other animal, doing well means you will reproduce more. In humans, doing well in life means you reproduce less.
 

D_987

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xmetatr0nx said:
Well when their male employees get home and realize their wives look nothing like the computer women they have created and stare at for hours every work day its understandable why they have a declining birth rate.
I guess thats why they are paying such ludicrous amounts - they don't expect the payout to be high!
 

bue519

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Psychosocial said:
Wow, makes me wish I were japanese, and had just made someone pregnant. LOL.

No but really, it's sad that people are getting this stupid attitude against getting children, in the long run it will most likely make the human race go extinct.
Well this is sort of what almost every government does. They usually provide money or huge tax breaks to people with children. This time though its a company. Although it does seem ridiculous that you get 10x as much money for 3 kids rather than 2.
 

BlindTom

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Wouldn't you just hate to be the third child? The story of your birth would be "We wanted a new car."
 

Hiroshi Mishima

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xmetatr0nx said:
Well when their male employees get home and realize their wives look nothing like the computer women they have created and stare at for hours every work day its understandable why they have a declining birth rate.
Thank you for making me smile by saying exactly what I was thinking while reading that article.
 

cobrausn

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I don't know why they have such a problem. Even old Japanese women have nice bodies, it's not like they lack motivational material. Cultural thing I guess.

Tenmar said:
It really isn't the amount of kids but who is having the kids in America. I will say I have never seen so many FAT people(as in their bellies stick out more than their chest like homer simpson) in my life. Children are becoming less active as well as adults in trade for working long hours or taking shortcuts in cooking and dieting. While a skinny person eating cheeseburgers is just as unhealthy as a fat person both should strive to work out a bit where they keep a balanced muscle/fat ratio.
How horrible we live in a country where even the poor can eat themselves to death. It's horrible.

Oh wait it's not. It's a fatty's personal choice if they choose to be all fat. Let them. It's unfortunate that soon We'll all be paying their medical bills, however. CHANGE! HOPE!

And talking about obesity and lack of childhood activity on a video game forum is a bit... yeah. Me? I loves my video games and my fast food, but I'll be damned if I let them make me get fat.