Population Decline and Regional Disappearance: Policy Prescriptions for Managing Smart Shrinkage
- Story 1. Regional economies through the lens of the city -

Under the accelerating population decline, Japan is shrinking at a pace equivalent to losing one prefecture each year. These changes are not uniform: while rural regions are in decline, population continues to concentrate in major metropolitan areas. However, even these large cities will eventually face the reality of having to share a shrinking pie. This series of articles explores what Japan’s regions might look like a hundred years from now and what actions we can take today through the lens of economic agglomeration theory. As the first step, this paper demonstrates how “the city,” as a site of population concentration, can serve as a sharp analytical lens through which we can envision the future of a regional economy.