Worrying Demographic Concentration

Ambiguous pessimism is covering residents all over Japan. A demographic research run by Cabinet Office revealed equivocal uneasiness of living local area in Japan. Concentration of population in Tokyo is not only worried by urban people, who suffered from friction between neighbors, but also by local people, losing human resource for the future of community. Knowing the distorted distribution of wealth, Shinzo Abe administration is still lagging behind of catching up necessary measures for the long-argued demographic problem.

The research found that 48.3% of responders thought demographic concentration in Tokyo not to be preferable, while 15.7% answered to maintain status quo. The responders who had misgivings for the future of their community amounted to 46.8%. While 58.0% of local people were worried about their future, only 34.3% of Tokyo residents were so. It showed that people in Tokyo were relatively feel sufficient on their lives.

The reason of anxiety among local residents mostly stemmed from want of more infrastructure. 55.7% were worried about shortage of young people, who would be the driving power of development. 48.0% predicted retreat of shopping stores would have great impact, while 38.4% required more facilities for medication and nursery in local communities. Manpower, economic facility and medical support must be indispensable for living ordinary life.

Lack of necessary infrastructure casts a shadow on appropriate redistribution of population. 59.4% of all did not like to move from urban community to local area. The higher their age got, the more they became reluctant to do that. 64% was against the idea of compact city, which would concentrate houses and infrastructure in local area.

The tendency shown by the research needed to be included in the policy of creation of local community. The most important factor to move to local community was medical facility with 51.1% of the answer, toppling cheap real estate, shopping center or richness in cultural events.

The most pessimistic answer for the government was that 66.0% answered that they thought the future of Japan would be dark, while 33.2% predicted it to be bright. It is natural for the people to think that Tokyo is good place to live, as long as the bureaucrats, having power to design future communities, do never move to local area. The first thing for the leaders to do is moving voluntarily.