Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the main rival to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race next month, said Friday that he would consider enacting three laws to reinvigorate rural areas if he beats Abe as party president and subsequently becomes prime minister.
The three laws would involve enhancing the productivity of service industries, promoting the migration of urban residents to rural areas and reforming local government systems by entrusting some administrative work to local non-profit organizations and agricultural cooperatives, Ishiba said.
Ishiba also criticized what he believes to be Abe's basic strategy to revive rural areas that are suffering from enduring economic slumps and depopulation, which is to foster improvements in urban areas first and then wait for ripple effects to spread them to other areas.