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The story
Starting October 1, Sendai Bank—a subsidiary of Jimoto Holdings—will begin depositing a celebratory gift equal to a baby’s birth weight in grams (converted 1-for-1 into yen) into any newly opened savings account held in the child’s name. The move sponsors “Sukusuku Box,” a childcare support program in Miyagi Prefecture; eligible children must be six or younger, and opening the account requires a minimum deposit of 30,000 yen, among other conditions. Birth weight is verified using the mother-and-child health handbook. On 5channel, some argued the amount should just be a flat sum for everyone, others worried about the impact on children born underweight, and still others questioned the legality of savings accounts and deposits held in a child’s name.
On the 25th, Sendai Bank, a subsidiary of Jimoto Holdings, announced it would sponsor the “Sukusuku Box” childcare support project running in Miyagi Prefecture. Starting October 1, the bank will deposit a celebratory gift equal to the child’s birth weight in grams (as yen) into any newly opened account in the child’s name, provided certain conditions are met.
For a baby born weighing 3,250 grams, for example, 3,250 yen would go into the new account. Eligible children are those age six or under who have received a “Sukusuku Box” containing sponsor-company products; conditions include opening a new account and depositing at least 30,000 yen at the same time. Birth weight is confirmed via the mother-and-child health handbook.
According to a Sendai Bank representative, the celebratory-gift idea actually came from bank employees as part of the sponsorship effort. The bank also hopes that opening accounts for children early will lead them to keep it as their main bank well into adulthood. The “Sukusuku Box” project is organized by the Kahoku Shimpo newspaper and the Miyagi Consumers’ Co-operative Society.
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
What people said
Just live a healthy lifestyle, do proper pregnancy prep ("sankatsu," fertility/pregnancy prep — like "konkatsu" but for having a baby), and have a healthy kid.
Preemies get 1,000 yen.
This might turn into a real controversy.
And they call doing this nonsense a day's work? Honestly, being a NEET (jobless and not even trying) would be better.
Flat rate would be fine too, but it lacks buzz — if it doesn't make the news, the PR effect is weak.
It's totally normal for a parent with custody to open and manage an account in their child's name.
Even after the child becomes an adult, it's fine as long as gift tax, inheritance tax, etc. are properly filed.
My kid was born weighing 100 million grams.
My womb still remembers it.
It's the underweight babies who actually cost more money.
When you're already down about not having a healthy birth, being told 'your baby's light, so here's this little bit' just piles another reason to feel bad on top.
Even I, with no kids, can picture that instantly.
Sounds like a matter for the Ministry of Justice, not the Financial Services Agency.
Re: #70
How is this discrimination against premature babies? It's fair, isn't it.
It's a flat 1-yen-per-gram system —
are you saying preemies get docked down to 0.5 yen per gram or something?
.
57 meters tall,
550 tons.
Eternal Konashi (a recurring 5ch ASCII-art meme character) says:
( °∀°) So that's 550,000 yen then
( °∀°)つ [hands over green tea]
(/◎＼) *glug*
yet apparently you can open an account for a baby
who can't even communicate.
Ever heard of a legal guardian?
And the real goal is to get them to come back and borrow money from the bank once they're adults buying a house or starting a business.
Eternal Konashi & Gaisha (recurring 5ch ASCII-art meme characters) say:
( °∀°) Singles are just fated to be discriminated against. And now some guys are even saying old people should mass-suicide.
( °∀°)つ [hands over green tea]
(/◎＼) *glug*
If it costs money, you can't just sock it all away in useless savings — so it actually makes sense.
It's not charity, it's just business.
Just watch —
they'll be forced to apologize within a week.
No record of it, but my stomach remembers.
Come on, at least twist it into 'kobukuro' (womb — also a pun on the band Kobukuro) like the original joke.
Should've been 'ofukuro' (slang for 'mom') there, not 'stomach.'
If your mother-and-child handbook says so and it's got the city's official birth-certificate stamp on it, guess that works.
Eternal Konashi says:
( °∀°) Even if your mental age is under 6, if your actual age is 7 or older, no dice. Did you even get your Sukusuku Box?
( °∀°)つ [hands over a Koume-chan plum candy]
( °～°) *crunch crunch*
What about the birth certificate the doctor issues?
Altering that afterward is a crime.
Lost it.
Guess you'll need the hospital to reissue it.
At birth you have to submit the birth certificate together with the birth notification.
Are you saying you never even filed the birth notification?
Depends how much proof the bank demands when opening the account.
Everyone always has their mother-and-child handbook on hand, but if they required the actual birth notification for a gimmicky account like this, nobody would bother opening one.
It's right there in the source — you don't need to submit the birth notification.
> Birth weight is confirmed via the mother-and-child health handbook.
Background and key points of this story
This isn’t a standalone birthrate-boosting measure from Sendai Bank on its own — it’s a sponsorship of the “Sukusuku Box” project run by the Kahoku Shimpo newspaper and the Miyagi Consumers’ Co-operative Society, and it’s limited to children age six or under living in Miyagi Prefecture. Because the gift amount is tied directly to birth weight in grams, thread commenters pointed out that it fails to account for babies born underweight. But per the article, Sendai Bank’s own stated motive is a business one — getting families to open accounts early so the bank becomes their long-term main bank — not a uniform government benefit program. Separately, opening accounts and receiving gifts in a child’s name is permitted as long as the parent, acting as legal guardian, stays within gift-tax and inheritance-tax filing obligations, so concerns that these are illegal ‘nominee accounts’ appear to stem from a misunderstanding of how the system actually works.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and summaries of the 5channel (Breaking News Plus) thread “Sendai Bank to deposit amount equal to birth weight when opening accounts in children’s names, sponsoring childcare support.”
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