Women in Japan are being offered public money to cover the costs of freezing their eggs, in an effort to tackle the nation's declining birth rate and dwindling population.

Urayasu, a city nine miles (14km) east of Tokyo, is allocating 90 million yen (£600,000) to help women harvest their eggs to be fertilised and implanted later in life.

It is hoped the three-year project will encourage women to give birth when they are ready instead of giving up having children.

However, some experts have voiced concerns it will simply compound the problem as women will delay conception - believing they can easily conceive with frozen eggs.

Japan is spending public money to cover the costs of women freezing their eggs (pictured), in an effort to tackle the nation's declining birth rate and dwindling population

Pictured, Hideaki Matsuzaki, the mayor of the city of Urayasu, in a press conference announcing the scheme

In reality, very few births result from egg freezing. In the UK, for example, only around 20 babies have been born after treatment using patients’ own frozen eggs.

The latest census data shows Japan's population has fallen by one million people in the last five years.

The Government predicts 40 per cent of citizens will be 65 or older by 2060.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said boosting the birthrate from 1.4 children to 1.8 children per woman is a priority.

Developed economies usually require a rate of 2.1 for a stable population - otherwise the financial burden on the working population intensifies as the baby boomer generation retires.

The pilot scheme, conducted by Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital, will subsidise the cost of egg freezing for women aged 25 to 34 on the understanding they use their eggs before age 45.

The average cost of such procedure is around up to 600,000 yen (£4,000), but a woman will only pay 20 per cent of the cost under the scheme.

WOMEN CAN'T FIND 'MR RIGHT' Most women who have their eggs frozen to delay motherhood are doing so because they have yet to find Mr Right - rather than because they are putting their career first. A study has found less than a quarter of women who store their eggs to delay starting a family do so because of work. Instead, 88 per cent do so because they are single or have failed to find the right partner. The research from Albany Medical College, in New York, was unveiled this week at an Edinburgh discussion on social egg freezing, raising concerns that today’s generation have not learned to lower their expectations from Mr Right to ‘Mr Will Do’. Advertisement

In a press conference, Dr Iwaho Kikuchi of the hospital said using public funds to support this kind of study may be a first in the world.

Dr Kikuchi said 12 women are in the process of starting the freezing process, and about two-thirds of them or their husbands have some sort of health issue.

The success rate of pregnancy from frozen eggs is slim.

If a woman freezes eggs at the age of 25, the chance of successfully giving birth is 30 per cent. At the age of 34, it drops to 20 per cent.

The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has warned the success rate is so low, women should not delay pregnancy, The Times reports.

'Pregnancy and birth should be conducted at an appropriate age,' the society wrote in a report.

'[Egg freezing] is not a technology that should be used in place of that.'

Hideaki Matsuzaki, the mayor of Urayasu has also called the low birthrate a national problem.

'In general, pregnancy and childbirth is an individual issue. But when the situation has become this far, I consider it a social problem,' Mr Matsuzaki said.

'I view using public expenditure as the right thing to do.'

The scheme comes as part of a package including more nursery places to allow mothers to continue to go to work.

It is hoped the thee-year project will encourage women to give birth when they are ready - after having the eggs fertilised and implanted later in life - instead of giving up having children