Japan will help revitalize willing municipalities, minister says

Yoshitaka Ito, Japan’s minister for regional revitalization, has displayed an eagerness to support the efforts of motivated local governments for the promotion of regional revitalization, a key policy of the administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The central government’s grants for regional revitalization are “easy to use” and have helped produce “many successful cases,” Ito said in a recent interview, adding, “We will assess whether local stakeholders have shared their ideas and made their efforts sustainable.”
Ito noted that “good leaders tend to be behind successful projects” and that “know-how is passed on to younger generations in some areas.” He also said he will analyze these cases with the aim of spreading them across the country.
The Ishiba government is working to put together a basic plan for rural revitalization for the next 10 years, Ito said. “We will listen carefully to the voices of people on the ground and back up the efforts of ambitious local governments.”
Ito said that the transfer of central government functions to regional areas has progressed “to a certain extent” in the past decade and is starting to produce results. “It is important to keep considering such transfers in response to risks related to overconcentration of central government functions in Tokyo.”
About 28.2 million people are expected to visit the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Ito said, adding that the event, to be held for six months from April 13 on the artificial island of Yumeshima, will likely offer a chance for regions across the nation to energize themselves.
“We want to work on funneling foreign visitors to regional areas and helping businesses match up,” he said.