The effectiveness of a proposal by a government panel of experts to stop universities from increasing their student enrollment capacities at their campuses in central Tokyo — as a measure to halt the continuing population flight to the capital area — is in doubt, unless the move is accompanied by greater efforts to create more employment opportunities for youths outside of the greater Tokyo area. That the government is thinking about resorting to such a regulation appears to reflect the poor results of the Abe administration's regional revitalization campaign.
As Japan's population rapidly declines and ages, the population exodus to the metropolitan area with Tokyo at its center remains unabated. In 2016, Tokyo and the three neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama had a net population inflow of nearly 118,000 people — a trend that has continued for 21 years and defies the administration's target of balancing the annual inflow and outflow to the greater Tokyo area by 2020.
Youths in the 15-24 age bracket account for a major portion of the net inflow, which indicates that many of the people moving to the Tokyo area do so when they either get jobs after graduating school or enter universities in the area. While Tokyo's 23 wards are home to 7 percent of the nation's total population, students who attend universities in central Tokyo account for 18 percent of the nationwide total. Hoping to halt the population exodus from their areas, the national association of prefectural governors has been urging the government to take steps to curb increases in the capacities of universities in Tokyo to accept more students.