Much of the world has a short and medium term problem, a problem called demography. The fertility rate from various countries It is poor and birth has plummeted in many of them. Asian countries as South Korea, China either Taiwan They suffer this problem, but we cannot talk about demographic winter without mentioning Japan.
While the country struggles to achieve the rate that guarantees the generational relief, they are being seen and wishing so that companies have labor. Giants like McDonald’s have changed its contracting policiesthey are putting to work To robots And, due to the lack of childreneven diaper companies have started Look at the adult diapers sector.
And, while dealing with that problem, another has been hitting the door for years: the Excessive centralization of the archipelago in a city: Tokyo. And this excessive centralization has a name: Ikkyoku Shūchū.
Japan disassembles
Ikkyoku Shūchū It is a Japanese term that refers to centralization of the country. This implies that there is an excessive concentration at a very specific point that is not only given because they are born more babies at that point or receive more immigration, but because other areas of the country are emptied because they move to the city that brings together … everything.
In the Japanese case, that city is Tokyo, the great city that, for decades, has accumulated industry, administrative functions, political, tourism and, obviously, population. As they point in The Japan Timeswhile the rest of the country waning, Tokyo grew. This has caused a huge demographic imbalance because, obviously, the area around it lost population, but also other locations throughout the country.
And the implications of this are huge. To begin with, an economic disparity is created because Everything is concentrated in the big cityso the gap in economic activities is increasing between the capital and the rest of the country. For the citizen, this translates into money and time, since everything is more expensive, transport services and public services are more saturated and teleworking is not always possible.
Ichinono, a town with more dolls than neighbors
It is also a problem for the rest of the region, since those municipalities that are running out of population cannot maintain essential services and either attract young people who want to work. In fact, what we have seen is that the way to attract couples to that “emptied Japan” is through incentives for you to form a family And have children.
There are others cases successful, but also related to the entire world of promoting family creation.
Plans against him Ikkyoku Shūchū
This phenomenon is sad, since it ends with the smallest peoples and, precisely, in Japan we saw an example of a town in which there are More dolls than people. Due to the lack of services, there are locations that have gone to work. An example is Ina, what implement A telemedicine service that uses drones to facilitate medicines to the elderly.
Another is Kamiyama, a town that lost 70% of its population and is achieving Attract companies thanks to the development of high -speed Internet. From the government they have also put themselves to Identify the needs to mitigate the phenomenon of the Ikkyoku Shūchū and promote Decentralization. In January of this year, El País presented a plan of action which will seek to promote economic and social growth through the redistribution of government functions throughout the country.
In addition, there is the call ‘Regional Reform 2.0’ that seeks to promote a stronger economy of the different regions and reduce the excessive population concentration of the capital. The end is, according to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, help all people reach happiness. And it is a continuation of the 2016 Regional Revitalization Act that seeks to encourage the implementation of industry and services away from Tokyo to attract population to those other nuclei.
It is a beautiful objective for a future that does not look too well if things continue as until now. The estimate is that, of the 124 million Japanese of 2023, in 2100 There will be 63 million and, in addition, very aging, making the entire social security system impracticable.
Image | Timo Volz