This month's featured article
Ensuring the Sustainability of Local Essential Services Supported by Diversification of Services and Value Creation: Bistrot de Pays program in France
SEKIGUCHI YoichiSenior Fellow, RIETI
In Japan’s non-metropolitan areas, where population decline through the falling birthrate and aging population are progressing, shortages of labor for providing even the essential services that guarantee living standards are becoming more and more serious, such as wholesale and retail services for food and other daily essentials, traffic and transport services, and operation of gas stations. To address this situation, the main focus has been on improving efficiency through the integrated provision of multiple services, or in other words, diversification of services.
The Program to Promote the Efficiency of Essential Services, which was launched under the Japan’s Act on Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness that was amended in 2026, designated initiatives for diversification, with the aim of combining different types of services and thereby expanding business scopes and streamlining management resources, as an eligible area for subsidy coverage. However, in Japan, the diversification of essential services has yet to be systematized sufficiently.
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