The government adopted a comprehensive strategy on regional revitalization at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday designed to realize a strong economy, a goal Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration has set.
The strategy, which covers five years from fiscal 2025, aims to raise labor productivity per person in rural areas to or above that in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the three neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa by 2029 through measures such as developing digital human resources.
To make local economies sustainable, the strategy stresses the importance of attracting domestic and foreign demand to rural areas so that they can be profitable.
Drawing in inbound visitors by utilizing local resources, supporting local industries’ efforts to expand their markets and encouraging companies to relocate their headquarters functions from Tokyo to rural areas are cited as concrete measures.
The new strategy calls for making rural areas more attractive places for women and young people to ease the overconcentration of people in Tokyo.
It sets new targets to increase by fiscal 2027 the number of migrants from Tokyo to the countryside to 10,000 and that of local governments working to increase what are known as connected populations, or people who actively interact with regional areas where they are not registered as residents, to 1,200.
Also stipulated in the strategy is improving living conditions in rural areas by maintaining public transportation services and strengthening measures to reduce disaster damage.
The government aims to resolve by fiscal 2027 the lack of transportation means in some 2,000 areas across the country by introducing autonomous vehicles and through other measures.
AloJapan.com