TOKYO -- A major Japan toy maker said yesterday
                 that it had launched an extraordinary effort to expand
                 its client base -- offering its workers one million yen
                 (S$16,500) if they have a third child.

                 Bandai Co. Ltd, inventor of the Tamagotchi electronic
                 pet, said its workers would get one million yen for
                 every baby they have after their second child.

                 "We wanted the employees to recognise that our
                 customers are children," said company official Yusuke
                 Fukuda. The company decided on the handouts to
                 "have an impact".

                 The number of Japanese households with three or
                 more children was decreasing, said the official,
                 although it was up to individuals whether they had
                 offspring.

                 According to the health ministry, 93,862 babies were
                 born in Japan in the financial year which ended on
                 March 31, less than half the 1,901,440 babies born
                 24 years earlier.

                 None of Bandai's 887 staff, who are aged 32.7 on
                 average, had yet received the bounty since the
                 company introduced the system last month, said a
                 spokesman.

                 The toy maker already gives 20,000 yen to
                 employees when they have a new child.

                 Many other Japanese companies have similar
                 congratulatory systems for their employees, but not in
                 accordance with the number of children, nor so large
                 a sum as one million yen.

                 The average birth rate for a Japanese woman is 1.38.

                 Figures released recently showed that the proportion
                 of children is shrinking. -- AFP.

                       Adapted from The Straits Times, 8 Apr 2000.