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Japan to crackdown on big suburban stores

Japan will try to stop the building of big shopping centers and hospitals in suburbs in hopes of halting the exodus from city centres before the population begins to shrink, officials said Monday.

With fewer Japanese having children, the government worries that suburban sprawl could pose environmental and ultimately economic hazards unless it is stopped.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport would together submit legislation before parliament next year to tighten regulations against large new commercial and public facilities in suburbs, a trade ministry official said.

While suburban mega-stores have yet to take off in Japan in the same way as in the United States and many other industrialized countries, urban flight has been a growing trend.

Excluding the greater Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya areas, the centers of Japanese cities of more than 200,000 people have lost about 10 percent of their residents and 15 percent of their offices in the past 10 years, the trade ministry official said.

The ministries believe the increasing number of large stores, malls and hospitals opening in suburban areas is a chief reason for urban flight.

“The restriction on land use in suburbs is aimed at bringing people and businesses back to the central city areas,” the official said.”Considering the shrinking population over the course of time, gathering city functions in a smaller area, rather than letting them spread to surrounding areas, is economically cheaper when constructing infrastructure,” he said.

Japan’s population is predicted to drop for the first time since World War II in 2007 as more young people put off starting families, seeing children as a burden to their lifestyles and careers. A separate study earlier this month by the land ministry said the aging population in itself could help stop suburbanization.It predicted more people would be drawn into the cities as space became more plentiful, while suburbs would increasingly be domains for the elderly. afp

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