Yeah, it’s not fun if you don’t have the cash for a love hotel. But I think that when you have so many people in their 20s and 30s who have never even had sex, there’s more going on there than just inconvenience. It’s like a significant number of people are giving up on the whole idea.
The things that you mention are part of another, related problem: even the people who do have sex don’t do it all that often. The government is trying to make things easier for people, urging companies to have people work less overtime and take more days off and all that.
In addition to the benefits available that you listed above, there are also some newer things, including 1) preschool is now free, 2) effectively free healthcare for children until the age of 12 or 15 (depending on the municipality) and 3) a stipend of 15,000 yen per month per child under three, decreasing to 10,000 yen per month per child under 15 (although it doesn’t decrease if you have 3 or more children). The government is seriously talking about giving every couple who has a third child 500,000 or 1,000,000 yen upon the birth of every child from the third onward.
Also, it should be noted that women are still entitled to 60~70% of their salary during their entire year of maternity leave.
