Tokyo eatery extra?

With Japan’s stuttering birth rate staying stubbornly low, and an estimated one million centenarians predicted to be pottering about by 2050, this rapidly greying nation is in grave danger of degenerating into a giant geriatric home. A situation that the government is acutely aware of, causing it to create a Minister of Declining Birth Rate; however, at 34 years of age, and boasting only one baby, department head Yuko Obuchi is going to have to really start cranking out the kids if she’s going to have any kind of statistical significance.

Yet looking on the bright side, this relative rarity does mean that children may well start to actually create money rather than merely cost it, with this pioneering restaurant swapping the selling of soba to siblings. An opening offer of ‘buy one, get a brother free’ rather boldly getting the ball rolling.