Regional Revitalization and Circular-Economy : The Abe Administration’s Experimentations and Evaluations

Abstract

The Abe administration started an experiment modifying policies after so-called ‘extinction list’ released in 2014. It was a policy shift toward a new regional revitalization connecting regeneration(purpose) through circular-economy(method). The biggest feature was that the government changed its planning, budget and evaluation from top-down to bottom-up by changing the implementation system from central initiative to local autonomy. It established a new type’s grant and introduced KPI & PDCA methodologies to evaluate the specific circular-economy’s achievements. Through these impacts of regional revitalization can remain in the region without being leaked. By accumulating socio-economic capital through the circular-economy and regional regeneration is considered more advantageous than the downward and uniform development of central-led. Similar to Japan, Korea has a low cost-effectiveness of regional revitalization. Therefore, it is important to learn lessons from the experiment of Japan. For regional revitalization and the circular-economy, △Various governance building △Local residents as driving force △Sustainable profit’s model △Practical use of differentiated local resources △Industrial policies specializing in local communities △specific evaluation systems are typically necessary.