I've lived in both big cities and small ones but I have to say that I have never lived somewhere as densely populated as Japan and don't really think I would like to. Sure I would love to visit Tokyo, but some of the images and video I see of how crazy it is how many people call the capitol city home, I think it would just drive me bonkers to actually live there are be constantly surrounded by so many people and such tight spaces.
Well now you don't have to do it! In fact, the government of Japan will pay a family with one child $3000 to agree to move somewhere else in the country. Families with more children will receive even more.
Of course you have to actually be Japanese in order to get this money.
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I don't know what compels people to want to live in such close proximity to one another and I can only presume that is has a lot to do with the amount of job opportunities that exist here for the most part. In an effort to encourage growth literally anywhere else in the country the government has been slowly increasing the amount of financial incentives for couples to strike up a living somewhere else. This applies only to the busiest areas of downtown Tokyo and in order to get your payout you have to move to an outlying area or another city in Japan entirely.
For people thinking about Air BnB-ing their house and just going on a month long vacation to try to cheat the system and get a quick payout... think again. The program carries with it a rider that families must remain outside of the chosen wards (and not return to any of them) for at least 5 years. Those who decided to move back before the allotted time will have to return the money to the government.
The motivations behind this are not simply to reduce the population densities of the currently crowded areas but also to encourage overall population growth or at least, maintaining the current levels of population. Japan has been experiencing a phenomenon that is also part of the rest of most of the western world in that their populace has a downward trend in their birth-rate dropping from 2.1 to 1.3 per family.
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If this was my morning commute I would quickly lose my mind
Now here's an even sweeter deal for the more affluent members of society: If your family has the resources to not just relocation but also to open their own small business or larger, the government will shell out a cool near $40,000 in incentives for people to do so. The same restrictions on not being allowed to relocate said business to Tokyo's most populated areas still applies in this case.
Now I have never been to Tokyo or even to Japan although I would like to one day. On the other hand I do know people that have traveled there and all of them had the same opinion. They all said that Tokyo was an absolute mad-house and it wasn't until they got TF out of there to the countryside or less populated cities that they actually enjoyed their trip there. This is something that I can completely relate to because before, when I was a business traveler I was required to go to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other very populated US cities. I found the rigmarole of being around so many people to be arduous and when I finally left these areas I found it to be a huge relief. I was always quite happy to leave those areas when I did so.
If I was Japanese I would be seriously looking at job opportunities outside of the city. Imagine being PAID to leave an area that makes you unhappy to a hopefully better life on the other side!