Any attempt to close the widening gap between urban and rural areas by increasing public-works spending and subsidies from the central government will only cover up the root cause of the problem, Yoshitsugu Hayashi, an economics professor at Kwansei Gakuin University told the Sept. 18 symposium.

Instead, policy emphasis should be placed on making the rural areas more attractive on their own, Hayashi said, adding that the introduction of the "doshu-sei" system of reorganizing Japan into several regional blocs will provide a better environment for such efforts.

The increasing disparity between economically successful urban areas and the less prosperous rural regions has come into focus in the last several years. It is often mentioned as one of the negative effects of the structural reforms pursued by the administration of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.