On 15 August a 73-year-old stall owner at a Singapore food court lightly patted a young girl's head and was pushed to the floor by a man believed to be her father, who apologised on the spot and said he had been overprotective. The fracture was found the next day; the stallholder was back at work five days later using a walking aid. Japanese boards argued over where the line sits between a wary parent and an injured old man.
Singapore's PM unveiled a family-support push — a flat ~S$1,000 'Baby Gift' per birth plus a package totaling nearly S$70,000 by age 17 — that spread in Japan as 'a flat ~10 million yen per child.' Arriving alongside a survey showing 35% of unmarried young Japanese have no intention to marry, it split reactions between distrust of Japan's fiscal will (and fear the money would be diverted to foreigners) and a colder analysis that cash alone can't fix a society where staying single is comfortable.
Comedian and online-salon entrepreneur Nakata Atsuhiko, who relocated his family to Singapore roughly five years ago after repeatedly bashing Japan, has moved back — announced by his wife Moe Fukuda on Instagram. Netizens piled on with 'you kicked sand on the way out, don't come back' scorn and cold speculation that money, taxes, or Singapore's soaring cost of living forced the return.