Latest news with #regionalrevitalization
Japan Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan launches group to help more women become digital experts
Japan has kicked off a consortium comprising the national and local governments and private-sector companies with an aim to foster female digital experts. The public-private consortium — set up Monday and led by Wakako Yata, former special adviser to the prime minister — will work to help women acquire digital skills to raise their wages, among other actions. It also hopes to contribute to promoting regional revitalization. "We want to boost productivity at small businesses in regional areas by leveraging digital technologies and unlock women's potential — an underutilized human resource," Yata said at an event held in Tokyo the same day to mark the launch of the consortium. "Through efforts across government agencies and ministries and in cooperation with the private sector, we hope to create regional communities where women can play active roles," she added. Yata also seemed positive about the idea of working with 68 local governments that are members of the central government's council on promoting workstyle and workplace reforms in regional areas. Digital transformation minister Masaaki Taira said at the event that the Digital Agency is ready to offer support to "realize a society where women can really thrive."
Japan Times
01-07-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Cabinet Office may lease government-owned disaster food trucks to businesses
The government plans to study how food trucks owned by local governments and dispatched to serve hot meals following disasters can be used at other times. The Cabinet Office is considering a program that would allow local governments to lease such vehicles to business operators in normal times and receive maintenance fees in return, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. It plans to conduct a survey in fiscal 2025 to learn the current status of these food trucks across the country. As local governments face severe financial conditions, the Cabinet Office intends to pave the way for them to receive help from the private sector in preparing for natural disasters, which are becoming more frequent and devastating. Local governments rushed to buy food trucks and restroom trailers after such vehicles were made eligible for regional revitalization grants under the central government's supplementary budget for fiscal 2024. However, food trucks require a cook to operate, whereas restroom trailers are easier to use at events. In addition, it is necessary to confirm whether local governments are legally allowed to lease their assets for profit. "It may be efficient if business operators using food trucks in normal times are mobilized in times of emergency," said a Cabinet Office official. The Cabinet Office will review laws including those on food sanitation and vehicle management to see whether there are any rules that prevent the wider use of the food trucks.
Japan Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Government aims to create 10,000 jobs via business relocations from Tokyo
Japan on Friday set a target of creating 10,000 jobs in areas other than Tokyo over the three years through fiscal 2027 by promoting the relocation of business head office functions from the capital. The target is included in a 10-year basic concept for the implementation of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's signature Regional Revitalization 2.0 policy, adopted by a government task force. The government aims to ease the overconcentration of businesses in Tokyo to address escalating labor shortages in the countryside, as well as ensure nationwide economic growth and realize a sustainable society. The basic concept stipulates the promotion of relocations and enhancement of head office functions to promote the outflow of people from Tokyo and increase job opportunities in provincial regions. The central government will ask local governments to use a tax incentive program to facilitate business relocations. It will also consider revising the program by analyzing how it is used. On the relocation of central government agencies from Tokyo, the state will present typical examples, such as by moving individual departments, to ask for suggestions from local governments. The central government also plans to promote people-to-people exchanges between urban and rural areas by utilizing what it calls "connected populations," or people who steadily interact with regional areas where they are not registered as residents. It will establish a registration system for such populations, with the aim of boosting the number to 10 million people and achieving a total of 100 million registrations by allowing such residents to choose multiple municipalities. The central government will devise specific measures to develop the basic concept into a comprehensive strategy by year-end, while local governments will be asked to revise their own strategies. It will promote private-sector efforts to increase the number of company towns — or municipalities deeply connected with specific companies — across the country. To discuss regulatory reform and support measures, the central government will set up a council headed by the prime minister.
Japan Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Regional revitalization faces Tokyo-countryside divide
As prefectural governors in Japan seek closer collaboration with the central government to tackle rapid population declines, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government remains cautious about fully committing to the effort. Tokyo officials are pushing back against arguments that blame the dwindling national population partly on the concentration of people and businesses in the capital. Overcoming the "Tokyo versus local areas" divide appears to be a key factor in advancing regional revitalization. The National Governors' Association set up a population strategy headquarters last year to strengthen collaboration with the central government on addressing depopulation, particularly the outflow of young people from rural areas, which makes sustaining local communities increasingly difficult. At the association's meeting last summer, in which the decision to establish the headquarters was made, differences quickly surfaced over how to address population declines. The debate centered on the wording of a draft emergency declaration calling for urgent action to tackle the issue. Referring to a section that connected the heavy concentration in Tokyo with the overall population decline in Japan, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said the causal relationship remained unclear. In response, Fukui Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto argued, "The outflow of young people from rural areas to urban centers where low birthrates are low, when they enter universities or take jobs, is a key factor accelerating the overall decline in childbirths across Japan." Prioritizing the unity of the association, the meeting adopted the emergency declaration as drafted, adding the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's opinion in a supplementary note. Still, Okayama Gov. Ryuta Ibaragi said after the meeting, "I don't think any governor was convinced by Gov. Koike's claim that the heavy concentration in Tokyo and the declining birthrate are unrelated." A source close to the association noted, "It left lingering resentment." The choice of an indicator for addressing the decline in childbirths has also become a point of contention. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is focusing on raising the marriage rate, defined as the number of marriages per 1,000 people annually, in which Tokyo has consistently led all prefectures. At a forum for consultations between the central and local governments in December last year, Yoshihiro Murai, chairman of the governors' group and governor of Miyagi Prefecture, proposed using a different metric: The proportion of married individuals among women in their 20s to 40s. In 2020, Fukui Prefecture had the highest share at 59.5%, while Tokyo had the lowest at 48.1%. Since the marriage rate covers all age groups, the association argues that it would be more effective to focus on the proportion of married women in the main childbearing age group. "We need to determine the most appropriate indicator to guide effective measures against the declining birthrate," another official close to the association said. Meanwhile, discussions aimed at correcting the imbalance in tax revenues between major cities such as Tokyo and rural areas have stalled, largely due to opposition from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which fears a decline in its own revenue under a revised taxation system. In December last year, six local organizations and the central government held a meeting in Tokyo to exchange views on regional revitalization. According to sources familiar with the discussion, several local government leaders called for addressing the heavy concentration of people in Tokyo, while Murai urged the central government to consider the issue, including the imbalance in tax revenues. Yoshitaka Ito, minister for regional revitalization, described this as the most challenging topic, according to the sources. A decade after the launch of full-scale related efforts, Regional Revitalization 2.0, a cornerstone policy of the Ishiba government, aims to create a society in which residents of large cities and rural areas are mutually connected, moving beyond the binary divide between urban and rural. Still, despite agreeing on the general policy framework, the governor's association still faces challenges over specific issues that affect the interests of individual prefectures.
