TOKYO: The Japanese government plans to set up a team of officials to make regional areas more appealing to live and work in, as part of Prime Minister ISHIBA Shigeru’s push for regional revitalization, Jiji Press learned Saturday.

The government aims to adopt a basic plan for the regional revitalization efforts as early as Tuesday in which it seeks to make regions attractive to women and young generations.

Based on the plan, the government will draw up a basic program in summer next year that will lay out measures to be taken intensively over the next 10 years.

A draft of the basic plan says that years of the country’s regional revitalization efforts have failed to stop the overconcentration in Tokyo and accelerated the flows of young people and women from regional areas.

The government has failed to address the root causes of the problems, including shortages of attractive jobs to them in regional areas, the draft says.

The basic plan will put forward five goals, including creating a regional environment in which people are allowed to live and work at ease and relocating people and businesses from the Tokyo area to regions.

The plan will also include correcting wage gaps between regions and stepping up efforts to promote nonregular employees to regular ones.

It will call for more frequent and effective reviews of regional projects financed by state subsidies.

The basic plan will also ask cabinet ministers to visit regional areas as much as possible to consider effective regional revitalization measures.

JIJI Press