The poor results of the Abe administration's attempt to move national government functions out of Tokyo — with the planned relocation of the Cultural Affairs Agency to Kyoto "within several years" as seemingly the sole major outcome — should be enough to cast doubts as to how serious the administration is about pursuing its much-hyped policy of revitalizing regional economies by halting the population flight to Tokyo and creating more jobs outside the capital.
Transfer of government institutions out of the capital may have only symbolic impact for reversing the accelerating concentration of people and resources in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. The administration's regional revitalization strategy calls for stopping the population flight to the Tokyo-centered metropolitan area by creating 300,000 jobs for young workers in other parts of Japan by 2020. It encourages private-sector businesses to move their headquarters out of Tokyo by offering tax incentives for those that do. But the government can also set an example by starting where it can — relocating its own institutions away from Tokyo.
Whether the administration's basic policy on the issue, adopted last week, will prod companies to consider leaving Tokyo by following the government's lead seems questionable. It might in fact lead businesses to doubt the government's own commitment to the goal.