Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has made convincing people to relocate from Tokyo to other parts of Japan where residents are aging and the populations are declining a key policy goal for realizing a “joyful Japan.”

In late December, the Ishiba government released its basic thinking on what it dubs “regional revitalization 2.0.” It began by recognizing the mistakes of previous efforts to encourage such revitalization.

One of the biggest problems, the report said, was that young people and women could not find good jobs or enjoy life in rural areas.

“This is not a dichotomy pitting urban and rural areas against each other. On the contrary, we will enhance the appeal of both urban and rural areas as places where each individual can realize a wide array of happiness and well-being, no matter whether one finds urban centers or local areas attractive,” Ishiba said in his policy speech to parliament on Jan. 24.

The prime minister’s plan is different from long-ago regional revitalization efforts that focused on "hard infrastructure projects" — the construction of new roads, bridges, dams, ports, airports, train and subway systems — as a way to attract new residents, or convince those who left for Tokyo or a big city after graduation to return home. None of these managed to stop the flow of younger people into major cities.

The new plan for helping convince younger workers to choose a career and life somewhere other than a major urban center such as Tokyo rests on five pillars:

  1. creating opportunities for novel experiences and visualizing new possibilities, which are seen as factors that could encourage younger people, and women in particular, to consider life in rural areas as something enjoyable rather than burdensome.
  2. transferring relevant government agencies to regional areas.
  3. creating new industrial sectors through new forms of collaboration (i.e. between the government, businesses, academia, and civil society) and making innovation blossom in regional areas.
  4. supporting local efforts toward green and digital transformations.
  5. fostering wider regional cooperation that transcends prefectural boundaries.

The National Governor’s Association has praised Ishiba for leading the way on the revitalization of local communities and for his plan, which trumpets new technology-related infrastructure investments to attract younger residents.

But while the governors of the 47 prefectures recognize the need for cutting-edge digital technologies to maintain quality of life, they are also reminding the prime minister that any successful plan needs to include local support in areas the central government has traditionally prioritized for regional development — especially convenient, reliable local train and transportation systems.

The governors have voiced a need for the central government to provide more support to help keep public transportation networks running. This is crucial as many local train services are being discontinued due to plummeting ridership resulting from a declining population, a trend that raises questions about the ease of moving around for current — and future — residents.

In particular, the nationwide Japan Railway network is important for both national and local governments. Once a local train network is shut down, it’s not easily restored, and that puts regions trying to attract new residents at a disadvantage because they would not be able to guarantee a convenient local public transportation system that links workplaces, schools, hospitals and shopping areas.

“The national government should take responsibility for providing management support and guidance to JR companies so that the role of their local lines can continue to be maintained. In addition, the wishes of the communities along the railway lines should be fully respected so the abolition of the lines is not carried out based solely on the circumstances and decisions of railway operators, including JR companies,” the governors said.

Takao Komine, an economist at Taisho University and an expert on regional economic issues, says that the good news about Ishiba’s effort is that, unlike past government plans, it’s not trying to halt the decline of Japan’s population, which Komine says can't be stopped. Rather, Ishiba and the governors talk about the need to resolve the problem of overconcentration in Tokyo through regional revitalization policy measures.

But Komine notes the complexity of the issue, because aside from Tokyo being overcrowded, there is also a large divide between the resident populations of prefectural capitals and those who live in smaller cities and towns.

In other words, people flock to places they are attracted to, and this makes even the best regional revitalization plan tough to realize in practice.

“If there is a multilayered concentration of people, it means their preferences are being expressed through their behavior and they are concentrating in places they find attractive. This is nearly impossible to change through government policy,” Komine says.