NAGOYA — The town of Tamaki, Mie Prefecture, started giving senior citizens free rides in minivans last year to cope with the inconvenience of living in sparsely populated areas in aging Japan.

Tamaki, with sprawling flat fields and paddies, is one of seven cities and towns testing a "buses on demand" service featuring a car allocation system developed by the University of Tokyo to move people efficiently.

In addition to Tamaki, the cities of Kasumigaura, Ibaraki Prefecture; Kitamoto, Saitama Prefecture; Sakura and Sanmu, Chiba Prefecture; Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture; and Hatoyama, Saitama Prefecture, have decided to put the test service into practical use.