Ishiba Steps Outside Tokyo to Promote Regional Revitalization as Upper House Election Approaches

By Toru Inoue and Kota Ifuku / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

6:00 JST, June 10, 2025

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has ventured outside Tokyo to promote his signature regional revitalization policy, hoping to win support in districts where only one seat will be up for grabs in the upcoming House of Councillors election. These districts, which are often rural or mountainous, hold the key to victory.

Opposition parties are ready to pounce on Ishiba and criticize him for his lack of results in agricultural policy.

On Saturday, Ishiba visited a community hub created by eyewear chain Jins Inc. in Maebashi and spoke with business leaders who support entrepreneurship in the region. He told reporters that the government would support such private initiatives by establishing a council led by the prime minister that will share model cases and plan a nationwide network.

According to Ishiba’s aide, rural areas are a “political stronghold” for the prime minister, who comes from Tottori Prefecture and served as the first regional revitalization minister.

In the Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election last year, Ishiba came out on top in 22 of the 34 prefectures where one seat will be up for grabs in the upper house election, including Gunma.

Given the circumstances, Ishiba has teed up regional revitalization as an attractive policy for this summer’s campaign.

When he was regional revitalization minister in 2014, Ishiba took the lead in formulating a comprehensive strategy to restore regional areas. The strategy focused on attracting businesses and relocation support through grants, but “There was no change in the trend toward declining populations and overconcentration in the Tokyo,” according to a government official.

The government’s new basic plan for regional revitalization, which will be decided as early as on Friday at a Cabinet meeting, will change tack and focus on regional economic growth that factors in population decline. The plan will include measures to grow local economies with digital technologies and support for young people looking to relocate. Ishiba said at a June 3 meeting that the plan would be “something completely new” compared to the one 11 years ago.

Yoshihiko Noda, president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized Ishiba’s new strategy on Saturday, telling reporters in Tokyo that, “He has a habit of moving forward without summing up previous measures.”

“Revitalizing regional areas would mean revitalizing agriculture,” he added.

The CDPJ will place regional and agricultural measures at the core of its campaign platform. It aims to significantly increase the budget for securing new farmers and to boost the population in regional areas by increasing the farming population.

Decentralization of power has been a key policy of the Japan Innovation Party, which has been based in Osaka since its founding. It has argued that local governments should be given more power, and that ministries’ and agencies’ local offices should be abolished. The Democratic Party for the People also advocates for devolving more power to municipalities and increasing grants.