Measures for Supporting Regional Job Creation in Japan

As regards measures for supporting regional job creation in Japan, the central-government-led policies that were drawn up during the period of rapid economic growth and that relied on public works spending continued until the 1980s. The recessionary measures in the 1990s, however, resulted in the central and local governments to accumulate huge budget deficits, and it was no longer possible to adopt the policy measure of promoting regional development through public works spending. As a result, in the economic recovery phase that began in 2003, the economic gap between large urban areas where private firms are recovering and rural areas that depend on the decreasing public spending is rapidly expanding. Faced with these widening regional divergences, the government is making a policy change from the central-government-led, institutionalized policy for regional recovery to a decentralization policy where regional communities voluntarily draw up and execute their policies for regional development.