Governmental policies promoting the revitalization of local areas suffering from poverty and lack of progress have been implemented since the Meiji Period (1868-1912). In this paper, I take a historical look at the various policies, from the introduction of local promotion to the present, and study the change of social background and thought.

In the local promotion policies that the state conducts, the relationship between the state and the local areas was originally a paternalistic one, formed by “centralized authority” and “industrialization.” However, due to the neoliberalism doctrine prevalent since the 1980s, changes in empowerment measures are now characterized by “privatization,” “deregulation” and “devolution.”

Japanese regional development plans were initiated with the development of river basins after WWII, focusing on hydroelectric power generation. In 1962, the Comprehensive National Development Plan (CNDP) was established with a view to balance the development of Japanese land, and proposed various regional development programs. In Japan's post-war period of high economic growth, the large-scale Mutsu-Ogawara Development Project was proposed as part of the CNDP, which, however has since undergone drastic transitions due to unexpected economic and social changes in Japan. This article reviews and evaluates past regional development programs in Japan, taking the Mutsu-Ogawara Project as an example, focusing on its initial purpose and the final result, which is construction of nuclear fuel cycle facility.

Nowadays, ‘self-sustaining’ is emphasized for regional development in Japan, because the autonomy of local government is considered important. To reduce regional disparities, the national government has been subsidizing thousands of self-determined regional developments in small cities and rural areas, instead of directing funds to national capital improvement projects, the common technique of regional development in the past. However, as population outflow toward Tokyo and major cities continues, the ineffectiveness of those regional developments provokes criticism from people living in large cities, and it has diminished the confidence and vitality of small cities and rural areas. This paper suggests that public debate about regional development is needed to foster consensus among citizens. People living in major cities should be involved in this discussion, since they may recognize that the prosperity of Tokyo and major cities is not sustainable without reducing regional disparities. Mutual understanding about the necessity to reduce regional disparities encourages people who live in underdeveloped areas, and is increasingly important for regional development in the era of declining population in Japan.

Building national resilience is a spatial planning policy adopted by the second Abe administration. The policy aims at creating safe and secure national lands, regions, and economic society that have strength and flexibility. This paper focuses on the impact that building national resilience has on regional development. In terms of regional policy in Japan, many efforts toward regional revitalization and development promote public-private initiatives. Both resilience and revitalization are necessary for enhancing regional power. This paper, firstly, outlines the basic concept and procedures for promoting initiatives for building national resilience and, secondly, describes the basic framework for strengthening linkage with regional development. Lastly, this paper discusses the linkage between building national resilience and developing local areas.

Japan, where the population has been declining since its peak in 2008, is the world's pioneer in dealing with population decline and aging. Population shrinkage and graying are causes and also results of demographic differentials between regions. Urban-nonurban differentials are especially pronounced in Japan. Greater Tokyo alone accounts for more than a quarter of the nation's population. Measures for revitalizing non-metropolitan regions are the centerpiece of the Government's program for tackling Japan's demographic challenges. This paper shows the outline of Japan's strategy and programs for overcoming population decline and vitalizing local economies.

Since the Japanese economic and social phase has changed from an increase in urbanization and population to aging and depopulation, regional development policies, which aim at regional development of disadvantaged areas and alleviation of regional disparities, are now also being modified in order to adjust to the new situation. Population indicators like total population, aging rate, or fertility rate have become more important for local governments as main policy targets. The commitment of the central government to conduct regional development tends to be weaker and more indirect, partly due to the progress of the decentralization of authorities. Under the influence of depopulation, not only the central and local governments but also various semi-public and private organizations will have to tackle with old and new types of problems derived from regional disparities, which start to be significant on the micro scale, as in small villages, residential districts or housing complexes, as well as on the national scale, due to mono-polarization to Tokyo, and the regional scale, such as concentration on central districts in urban areas.

Using a panel dataset of 161 municipalities across the nation, this paper examines the effect of municipal governance structure of arts and cultural administration on local public cultural expenditures. By estimating the demand function within a median voter theory, we found that expenditure on arts events and cultural facilities are price-inelastic. The characteristic of normal goods was only acknowledged with expenditure on arts event. We also found that transferring the authority of arts and cultural administration from the municipal education committee to the mayor's administration induces an increase in expenditure of arts events, but not in expenditures of cultural facilities. Spending on cultural facilities tends to be increased when both the municipal education committee and the mayor's administration are in charge of arts and cultural administration.

Facing a decline of public support, many orchestras today are introducing outreach programs where students can experience live performances, in the hope that such live performance would have a strong impact on their future appreciation of classical music. In order to evaluate the impact of the outreach program, we took the case of a pioneering orchestra - the Gunma Symphony Orchestra (hereafter abbreviated as GSO) - which has conducted outreach programs for 70 years, and more recently conducted a subscriber survey.

Roughly 60% of GSO subscribers experienced its outreach program, and a significant difference was observed in preferences between the “outreach” group and others: the former considered that GSO highly contributed to cultivating an appreciation of cultural arts in children, and that GSO enhanced the image of the region. However, there was no significant difference observed in income or education, two other factors affecting attendance. It can be said that an outreach program activated the potential market within the high income and highly educated segments of the local community, contributed greatly to creating core supporters of GSO who appreciated various merits (preference), and also mobilized the younger generation, but did not influence their profile.

Since the achievements of Buchanan and Tullock (1962), indicating the optimal majority rule is to be determined at a level that minimizes the total cost of the decision-making costs and external costs, a supermajority system has been recognized as the product of compromise. However, in the weighted voting system, a divergence between the voting power and voting rights inevitably occurs. As a result, in the voting power per weight unit, inequality occurs between voters in the form of a transfer from the voters in minority groups to the voters in the majority. Though we have two ways to correct the inequality-the re-allocation of the voting rights and the adjustment of the majority requirement-bias leans toward the former study. In this paper, the Shapley-Shubik index is used to estimate the majority requirement level to balance the voting power per weight unit. The result indicates that a special majority of 80% strong is the optimal level.

This paper determines the technical efficiency of inpatient medical services in secondary care areas and analyzes the relationship between differences in technical efficiency and regional characteristics by using panel data from 2011 to 2013. The main concern is the influence of health resources and care resources.

Results of the analysis indicate that there are regional differences in the efficiency of inpatient medical services and that secondary care areas with highly effective inpatient medical services have fewer medical institutions per inhabitable land area and fewer long-term care beds and train commuters per capita. On the other hand, these areas have a high per capita number of public health nurses, sports facilities, and nursing homes, and high public health expenditures.

These findings suggest not only that the efficiency of inpatient medical services is influenced by the level of medical resources but also that regional characteristics make a difference in efficiency. Specifically, health resources and care resources may contribute to a high level of effectiveness.

This study clarifies the leader development process in tourist areas that introduced the Onpaku model, a method of discovering regional charm, developing regional human resources, and creating various tourist services that take advantage of regional resources. This paper adopted semi-structured interviews of four leaders. Their responses were analyzed using a qualitative data analysis (SCAT: Steps for Coding and Theorization).

The results indicated two patterns in the leader development process. One is the development process of leaders who emerged from the private sector as follows: (1) Leaders grew up in their place of birth and lived there until they graduated from high school and began to have feelings that they want to do something about the area; (2) They experienced university life outside their hometown and acquired basic leadership skills at a university and their first workplace; (3) They were shocked by the local situation in the areas where they were born and raised, and they had strong feelings that they want to do something about the area and take action to change the situation; and (4) They integrated the actions that they had undertaken, and carried out Onpaku in their respective area. The other is the development process of leaders who emerged from administration as follows: (1) Leaders engaged as local administration staff in community development projects such as Onpaku,; (2) While interacting with local residents through community development activities, leaders' feelings for the area began to increase; and (3) They stepped down from their posts as leaders and became supporters.

Thus, it can be said that the following three factors were involved in the leader development process: (1) experiences outside a leaders' hometown, (2) shock, and (3) role models.