Japan's government, burdened by an aging population and an alarming population decline in rural areas, is now offering families up to $7,700 per child to move out of the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The new rule is set to go into effect in April, Kyodo News reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. The grant is more than three times the previous relocation bonus of $2,300 per child.

According to Kyodo News, residents of the 23 major metropolitan areas of Tokyo and neighboring Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures are eligible for the cash support if they move outside the metropolitan area.

But there's a catch: Eligible families must stay in their new region for five years and will have to repay the money if they move out of the area.

According to Japan's Ministry of the Interior, the Greater Tokyo area, which includes Tokyo and the prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa, is home to about 35.6 million people.

Japanese leaders are struggling to keep the country's population from concentrating heavily in Tokyo in search of better job prospects. According to the latest World Bank data, about 92 percent of Japanese people lived in cities in 2021, up from 63 percent of Japan's urban population in 1960.

The government seeks to revitalize the regional economy and population by controlling the influx of people into the capital.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's administration has expressed concern that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, more people are entering the Tokyo metropolitan area than leaving.

As part of efforts to redistribute the population, Japanese officials came up with various incentives to encourage relocation to rural prefectures. For example, the government offered cheap $500 houses and tax breaks to encourage city dwellers to move into abandoned houses in rural "ghost villages."