Summary of Minister Fujii’s Post-Cabinet Press Conference
Overview
Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Fujii explained the Cabinet decision on a decree establishing the requirements for designating a Subcapital, coordination with prefectures to advance the Regional Future Strategy, and support for local governments. In response to questions, he discussed formulating basic policy after the Subcapital Act takes effect, publishing the results of public comments, and the basis for the numerical designation requirements. He said the population and economic concentration requirements reflect the leading role expected of a core of a multipolar, decentralized economic area, and stated that the Act aims both to correct excessive concentration in one area and to provide backup for capital functions.
Key points
- The Cabinet approved a decree setting requirements for Subcapital designation and revised some requirements in light of public comments.
- The population requirement is at least 1.2% of Japan’s total population, and the economic requirement is gross prefectural product of at least 2.1% of gross domestic product.
- To advance the Regional Future Strategy, a coordination framework with prefectures will be established and municipalities will be supported in preparing plans.
Overview
At the press conference, he spoke about the adoption of the enforcement order for the Subcapital Act and advancing the Regional Future Strategy, then answered questions about designation requirements and future procedures.
The Minister cited building a backup system for core capital functions and forming a multipolar, decentralized economic area as purposes of the Subcapital Act, and explained that the designation requirements were developed with the leading role at the core of the latter in mind.
Details
Public comments on the draft decree were collected from October 3 through October 16, and 291 comments were received. The specific numerical criteria for population and economic concentration were left unchanged from the draft, while some provisions, including the administrative matters covered by cooperation agreements, were revised. Comments addressed support or opposition, requests for review, and policies to be formulated after the Act takes effect. The results, including the government’s responses, are scheduled to be published on October 30, the planned date for promulgating the decree.
The population requirement was set at at least 1.2% of Japan’s total population, based on the idea that eligible municipalities should have a population comparable to that of a prefecture. This corresponds to 1.5 million people, the median prefectural population. The economic requirement applies to municipalities in prefectures whose economic scale is at least the national average, and requires gross prefectural product to be at least 2.1% of gross domestic product.
Basic policy will be formulated within 1 year after the Act takes effect, and the basic approach to designation policy is to be formulated during November. A schedule for smooth progress through the designation procedures will also be presented. The Subcapital Development Promotion Headquarters, headed by the Prime Minister, will be established within the Cabinet on October 30 and will prepare the draft basic policy and the Subcapital Development Policy.
Under the Regional Future Strategy, a coordination framework between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and prefectures will be established, and letters will be sent to prefectural governors and municipal mayors requesting active efforts. Teams of central government officials from relevant ministries and agencies will be dispatched as Regional Future Strategy Support Officers to provide ongoing advice and consultation as municipalities prepare growth plans for local industries. The approach to gathering views from experts in disaster prevention, the economy, and infrastructure, as well as from local governments, will be considered in formulating the basic policy.