I often feel like Tokyo is abnormal !?

When I was working in Osaka, I'd find businesses there difficult. I'd realize that compared with Tokyo, Osaka was just rural despite it being the second largest city in Japan. Although the Japanese economy wasn't that bad at the time, Osaka still had difficulties luring business. When I first started living in Tokyo about 15 years ago, various things surprised me (I hadn't expected that because I was raised mainly in Osaka, the large city). The packed commuter trains were crazy. There were still many people in downtown Tokyo even at midnight. I'd have a hard time getting on the last train around 1 am because it was filled over capacity. Houses were built close together. The rent of tiny apartments was relatively high, although it depended on the area. On the other hand, I felt like there was nothing you couldn't get in Tokyo. I felt that Tokyo was an exciting city only for the rich.

The situation hasn't changed a lot. Everything is still overly concentrated in Tokyo. It's been pointed out for many years that this situation has caused and continues to cause problems. Nevertheless, there is still no sign that the government is attempting to deal with it seriously. Perhaps due to the prolonged recession, I feel like the concentration has even been recently growing. As a matter of fact, whenever I go to Osaka, I realize that Osaka is more stagnant than when I was working there many years ago.

By the way, various issues related to nuclear power plants have been emerging since the Fukushima accident. These issues used to be covered up because ten major electric power companies in Japan, which are in a virtual monopoly (please see Note below), have strong connections to big names in both politics and business. At least, the inconvenient and unsavory information wasn't widely reported on TV because all of the ten companies are major sponsors of commercial TV stations.

Recently, NHK, the public broadcasting network, reported that cities (or towns) where nuclear power plants are located can obtain large contributions from the aforementioned major electric power companies. The fact that these cities receive large subsidies from the central government has been widely known, but I don't think that the contributions are known among the public despite it being legal. I didn't know about the contributions until I saw the report. According to NHK, the contributions are non-transparent and convenient for the cities. In the Sendai/川内 city, Kagoshima prefecture (where the Sendai nuclear power plant is located), when the city had a tight budget, it would ask for the electric power company that owned and operated the plant to contribute funds. NHK discovered that the city has already received 2.7 billion JPY (34 million USD. 1USD=80JPY) in total in contributions, although it is unclear whether that number is truly high enough.

As I mentioned before (please click here), there is a tendency that once cities get used to relying on money related to nuclear power plants, they can't escape that dependence. There are many things that the cities have to change. On the other hand, there are a lot of cities and towns which have been having a very hard time boosting their own economy and activating themselves because of the over-concentration in Tokyo. Fundamental problems have been emerging since the 3/11 earthquake.

Note.
Japan is divided into ten regions for electric power suppliers and there are ten major electric power companies. In other words, each region has only one electric power supplier. Although the law was relaxed about 15 years ago and other companies started supplying power mainly to office buildings, the ten major companies are still in a virtual monopoly. I'm living in the Tokyo area. I have no choice but to make a contract with TEPCO. I don't have any choice for electric power suppliers.


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