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.
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