日本政府关注本国孩子出生率

    According to the Washington Post of September 26, Japan's government has been paying more attention to the nation’s fertility rate, which influences the country's economic development。
    The coastal¹ region of Fukui has Japan's biggest share of dual-income households, its highest ratio of working women and its lowest unemployment. What it doesn't have is enough babies。
    So the prefectural government recently started the Fukui Marriage-Hunting Cafe, a Web site for singles, to help stem the falling birthrate - which is damaging the economy. As an added incentive², couples who agree to marry will get cash or gifts。
    Japan's fertility rate has dropped to 1.34 children per woman, shrinking the pool of workers and consumers, and increasing the burden on younger employees to pay for an aging population。
    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that the number of working-age Japanese will drop to 81 million this year, compared with the peak of 87 million in 1995. The average number of children that Japanese women have compares with Canada's 1.6 and France's 2, according to the World Bank. The 2.1 rate in the US is considered the minimum for a developed nation to maintain a constant population。
    Key to boosting the birthrate is getting couples to marry. Three-fourths of the decline in Japan's fertility rate between 1975 and 2005 can be explained by more women delaying or forgoing³ marriage, according to Miho Iwasawa, a researcher at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Tokyo。
    Census⁴ data show that 32 percent of women aged⁵ 30 to 34 were unwed in 2005, more than twice the percentage 15 years earlier。
    The Democratic Party of Japan came to power last year promising⁶ to lighten the burden of rearing children. Families began receiving monthly allowances of $150 a child this fiscal⁷ year and can now send their children to public high school for free. Prime Minister Naoto Kan appointed Koichiro Gemba to a cabinet-level post to counter the declining birthrate. Kan had also pushed his staff to leave work at 6 pm for weekday dates。
    Even so, national and local governments need to reach the unmarried, whose rising proportion in the country is the biggest factor behind the shortage of children, said Shigeki Matsuda, a sociologist⁸ at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo。
 

1 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

2 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

3 forgoing   

v.没有也行，放弃( forgo的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Everything, in short, is produced at the expense of forgoing something else. 总之，每一种东西的生产，都得以牺牲放弃某些其他东西为代价。 来自互联网
• These aren't the only ones forgoing the morning repast, of course. 当然，他们并不是放弃早餐的唯一几个。 来自互联网

4 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

5 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

6 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

7 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

8 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。