“If the central government cannot reform Japan, leaders with something akin to presidential authority should take the initiative in reforming local governments. If reforms are undertaken simultaneously at a local level, Japan should change.” Leaders participating in the G1 Summit have formed the “G1 Summit Network” to undertake local reforms. They have listed five priority areas – information technology (IT), economy, human resources, declining birthrates, and education – with each G1 Summit member assigned to one of these.

While the ratio of expenditure of national and local governments is currently 4:6, the ratio of tax revenue sources is 6:4. Under the current system, the revenue shortage of a local government is covered by the central government in the form of subsidies. This is why there is no incentive for local governments to reduce expenses. At the same time, without local governments having the freedom to increase tax revenues, their willingness to make appropriate investments will not increase. The drastic transfer of financial resources is therefore essential.

One of the structural problems of today’s Japan is that because many of its authorities and financial resources are controlled by the national government, local governments cannot take the initiative in developing and implementing dynamic policies. As a result, municipal governments do not make efforts to increase their income through appropriate investment and have instead been engaged over many years in unproductive local administrative activities that depend on subsidies. After reorganizing local governments to a larger scale through the decisive achievement of the abolition of prefectures and establishment of dōs, it will be essential to transfer the central government’s financial resources and authorities, along with its personnel, to local governments.

In 1871, immediately after the Meiji Restoration, the han (feudal domain) system was abolished. More than 140 years have passed since then, during which our society has rapidly evolved and the cross-border movement of people, goods, and information has developed significantly. As a result, regional areas are now faced with global competition. Despite this, the system of centralization that was established in line with the policy to abolish the han system has remained largely unchanged. The To-Dō-Fu-Ken (prefectural) system should be abolished and the government should take decisive action to get rid of prefectures and instead establish dōs.

Since ancient times, the more remote frontiers have been more important to continental nations, which share borders with other countries, in terms of national defense, and every possible resource has been invested in remote regions. For Japan, an island nation made up of more than 6,800 islands, the sea is our frontier. The people of Japan have been relatively unaware of this frontier, all the more precisely because Japan is an island nation. Today, the ocean has tremendous potential as a frontier of resource development and economic growth. The development of its frontiers and the underlying premise of the enhancement of maritime governance are important to the maritime nation of Japan.

Since the 2010 Senkaku boat collision incident (collision of a Chinese fishing boat into Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels), there have been a series of approaches by unidentified ships and spy ships as well as numerous large-scale marine accidents. Because of these incidents, the importance of the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), which protects Japanese waters, has been increasing to a significant degree. However, the scale of the JCG is very small, with the number of full-time personnel being about 13,000 and the budget being around 180 billion yen. It is essential to strengthen the functionality of the JCG in order to protect Japanese national interests.

“Water is the most valuable resource in the world.” That is a line from a 007 James Bond movie but right now around the world, battles are raging over water resources. In China, some 1,000 lakes have disappeared in the last five decades. In Russia, the Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest lake, is disappearing. Japan cannot be indifferent to these developments as an increasing number of Chinese and other foreign companies are purchasing forests in Japan for their water resources. Japan should address water issues as a national policy priority.

About 20% of earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger recorded in the world occurred in Japan, where there are about 2,000 active faults and 110 active volcanoes. Since ancient times, one of the essential roles of a country is to protect its people from natural disasters, such as the flooding of large rivers. It is also extremely important these days to protect the people of Japan from disasters. We should learn as much as possible from the tragic experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake in order to be prepared for any catastrophic disaster that may occur in the near future.

In the world ranking for number of overseas visitors, France has the top spot with 83 million tourists, followed by the United States, ranked second, with 67 million, and China, ranked third, with 58 million. As these figures show, major countries support their economy with tourism. Japan, however, is ranked 30th in the world. Japan has world-class latent tourism resources, including abundant nature, unique culture, sophisticated cities, and its highly appreciated national cuisine. We should pull out all the stops to achieve the target of 30 million overseas tourists.

A policy objective in both China and India is to relocate residents of farming and other rural communities into urban areas to raise rates of urbanization. The reason why these countries set “urbanization = depopulation” as a policy goal is because urbanization serves as a driving force for economic growth. Japan’s national land policy into the future should be designed in such a way as to regard depopulation as a positive development and to promote the concentration of people in cities on the basis of achieving goals to develop compact cities.