It's been said that one of the major reasons Japanese couples don't have more children is because of the costs involved in raising children. With the average employee's monthly income in July last year being around JPY386,000, there isn't a lot of discretionary spending going on after the costs of rent, food, and travel are counted. In particular, there isn't really enough to warrant the cost of JPY23.7m, or a bit over JPY1m per year, that it costs for each extra child present in the family.