Our book was published by Palgrave Pivot!
This publication brings together 19 English articles from SPACE NIRA.

Hatta, Tatsuo (ed.) (2018) Economic Challenges Facing Japan’s Regional Areas, Palgrave Pivot.

The book is available here:
http://www.p...

Unit 01:Local Government Financing of Health Insurance and the Revitalization of Japan’s Regional Areas
Unit 02:Agricultural Policy
Unit 03:Regional Revitalization and Japan’s Low Birth Rate
Unit 04:Issues facing Japan’s Tourism Policy
Unit 05:Good ...

Tatsuo Hatta
President
Asian Growth Research Institute

Preface

　The national and local governments¹⁾ in Japan share the burden of fiscal expenditure to fund social insurance for the elderly. However, the system currently in effect has led to ineff...

Masayuki Komatsu
Senior Fellow
The Tokyo Foundation

Introduction

　In the 70 years since the end of the Second World War, the Japanese fisheries have been allowed to operate in “Olympic-style” fishing¹⁾, in which victory goes to the operator who ca...

Kojun Hamada
Associate Professor
Faculty of Economics, Niigata University

Introduction

　The decline of Japan’s fishing industry has long been a focus of attention. According to Fisheries Agency data, Japan’s catch has been steadily declining sin...

Mari Koyano
Professor
Graduate School of Law, the Advanced Institute for Law and Politics Globalisation, Hokkaido University

Introduction

　Hokkaido is the cornerstone of Japan’s fishing industry. In 2014, production in Hokkaido’s marine fishing an...

Tatsuo Hatta
President
Asian Growth Research Institute;
Director
Center for Policy Analysis, Keizai Doyukai

　“Birthrates in Japan differ between regions, and any national measures intended to improve its birthrate have to take this fact into con...

Masayuki Nakagawa
Professor
College of Economics, Nihon University

１．Introduction

　A report published by the Japan Policy Council in 2014 argued that the concentration of Japan’s population in Tokyo, a city with a low birthrate, was lowering the...

Wataru Suzuki
Professor
Faculty of Economics, Gakushuin University

１．Ensuring Employment Opportunities is Essential for Measures addressing the Declining Birthrate

　The important thing to be borne in mind when considering the appropriate direction...

Motohiro Sato
Professor
Graduate School of Economics, Applied Economics,
School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University

　Japan’s centralized public finance is changing. As indicated by the designation “administrative decentr...

Wataru Kobayashi
Associate Professor
Faculty of Policy Informatics, Chiba University of Commerce

１．Introduction

　Discussion of fiscal decentralization eventually arrives at the question of the allocation of functions and the allocation of fiscal r...

Tomomi Miyazaki
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University

１．The Benefit Principle of Property Tax

　Some researchers have proposed that after the decentralization reform in Japan, property tax can be useful as fundamental ta...

Ryuchi Kaneko
Deputy Director-General
National Institute of Population and Social Security Research

　In 2005, Japan’s total fertility rate (TFR) recorded its lowest-ever level, at 1.26. The figure has since recovered somewhat, and is now treading w...

Kumiko Tomikawa
Professor
the Faculty of Commercial Sciences, Hiroshima Shudo University

１． The Hotel Business Act and Minpaku

　“Minpaku” is the Japanese term for providing rooms in private houses as accommodation. In itself, minpaku is not ille...

Yoshitaka MIZOO
Director
the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation

Introduction

　In Japan, the trend towards the use of inbound tourism to drive regional revitalization is increasing in strength. Against the background of an increasing number of overseas...

―Orientations for the Promotion of Tourism and the Revitalization of Regional Areas
as Japan seeks to Attract 30 Million Foreign Tourists per Year―

Yasushi Shinohara
Associate Professor
the Faculty of Tourism and Community Studies, Atomi Univers...

Makoto Atoh
Honorary Director-General
the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research

１． Introduction

　More than 40 years have passed since Japan’s birth rate began to decline. After reaching its peak in 2010, the nation’s tota...

Toshihiko Hara
Professor
Department of Design, Sapporo City University

　The announcement in 2014 of a strategy to halt the decline in Japan’s fertility rate and reinvigorate the nation’s regional areas ^1） by the Japan Policy Council is still fres...

Masayoshi Honma
Professor
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Change is coming to Japan’s agriculture. Irrespective of the fate of the TPP negotiations, the nation’s agricultural sector must formulate a ...

Kazuhito Yamashita
Research Director
The Canon Institute for Global Studies

１．Factors in the decline of Japan’s agriculture

　　Japan’s agriculture is in decline. This decline is particularly conspicuous in the case of rice agriculture. Rice farms a...

Kazunuki Ohizumi
Project Leader
The 21st Century Public Policy Institute, Keidanren

　 I believe that in order to increase Japan’s agricultural output, we ultimately have no choice but to rely upon the small proportion of the nation’s farms which p...

Wataru Suzuki
Professor
Faculty of Economics, Gakushuin University

　The Abe administration has initiated a policy of “regional revitalization” as a new economic policy seeking to correct the over-concentration of population and economic activity ...

Masayoshi Hayashi
Professor
Faculty & Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo

1. Introduction

　Local governments form an integral part of the Japanese system of health and long-term care for the elderly. While the central government des...

Yasushi Iwamoto
Professor
Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo

Public health insurance for Japan’s working generations can be divided into association-managed health insurance for employees of large corporations, health insuranc...