Both ruling and opposition parties are offering ideas for stopping population outflow from regional communities in their campaigning for the Oct. 27 general election.
The central and local governments have failed to revitalize regional communities since they started implementing measures to alleviate the overconcentration of people and authorities in Tokyo a decade ago.
The "Digital Garden City Nation" initiative of Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's predecessor, and the spread of remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to population recoveries in some areas. But with socioeconomic activities getting normalized, people are returning to the capital.
A major cause of depopulation in regional communities is the severe outflow of younger women.
The Population Strategy Council, composed of private-sector experts, warned in April that, by 2025, the number of women in their 20s and 30s in 744 municipalities may drop by half — putting those cities, towns and villages at risk of disappearing.
Ishiba, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, had his party emphasize to voters its efforts to double grants to local governments from the current ¥100 billion under its "Regional Revitalization 2.0" policy.
Meanwhile, Komeito, the LDP's coalition partner, touts the benefits of ride-hailing services in securing local transportation means and promoting rural tourism.
On the other hand, the leading opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Democratic Party for the People emphasize decentralization. Specifically, they are demanding that the central government transfer more power and revenue sources to local governments and revive lump-sum local grants.
Nippon Ishin no Kai pledges to move some functions of central government ministries and agencies out of Tokyo while the Japanese Communist Party says it will seek regional revitalization through the promotion of small and midsize businesses.
However, critics say all those campaign promises are lacking in originality and detail.
In June, the government concluded that 10 years of its regional revitalization efforts have yet to reverse demographic trends.
"We need a large-scale national policy turn," said Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita.
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