Japan aims to alleviate overcrowding in Tokyo by arresting population flight to the metropolitan area by the end of fiscal 2027, a new five-year regional revitalization plan released by the government showed Friday.

The draft strategy, which will be finalized at a Cabinet meeting next Friday, specifies measures and numerical targets to be implemented from fiscal 2023 to eliminate net population inflow into Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.

In fiscal 2021, which ran from April last year until March, the number of people moving into the four prefectures exceeded those moving out by around 84,000.

The five-year plan includes using tax incentives to encourage companies to relocate to regional areas, establishing satellite offices, and increasing opportunities for the urban population to contribute to local communities as part of measures to increase population outflow.

Many of these measures already exist and will likely need to be bolstered over the next five years if the government is to achieve its goal.

A revitalization strategy set by the administration of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in December 2014 aimed to eliminate the net population inflow into Tokyo by the end of 2020.

But difficulties in realizing this goal resulted in the target date being pushed back to fiscal 2024, meaning the new target of fiscal 2027 is effectively a second postponement.

The draft strategy by the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida outlines measures and goals by sector, including ways to attract younger generations by improving the environment for marriage and childbirth in regional areas.

To create more job opportunities outside urban areas, the government will also work to revitalize the tourism, farming and fisheries industries, as well as support entrepreneurship.

==Kyodo