JETRO Invest Japan Report 2022
Chapter3. Recent Government Policies Section5. Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation

"Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation" is an initiative to shift from concentration in large cities to multi-polar concentration in rural and regional areas through digitalization, towards a "society in which everyone can live conveniently and comfortably anywhere in Japan." The initiative aims to solve social issues such as the hollowing out of industries, the aging population, and the depopulation in rural and regional areas. In November 2021, a "Council for a Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation Realization" was established to materialize this initiative. The Council discussed the "Basic Policy for the Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation" at the 8th meeting in June 2022, which reached the Cabinet decision in the same month.

"Basic Policy for the Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation" aims to realize the vision with four pillars: (1) solving social issues using digital technology, (2) building hardware and software digital infrastructure, (3) training and securing digital talents, and (4) ensuring that no one is left behind. The Council has set key performance indicators (KPIs) to promote these efforts. (Chart 3-5)

Specifically, to enable "migration without job change," the government will support the development of facilities for satellite offices, etc., to further teleworking in regions and promote the development of communications infrastructures such as optical fiber networks, 5G, data centers, and submarine cables. In addition, to develop and secure human resources with digital skills necessary for solving social issues in rural and regional areas, the government will support their settling down in each area, including highly skilled foreign talents in the digital field.

Chart 3-5: Outline of KPI in "Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation"
Policies for realizing the vision	KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
Using digital technologies to solve social issues in rural areas	1,000 local governments to implement digitalization by the end of FY2024. Establish satellite offices, etc., in 1,000 local governments by the end of FY2024. Deploy management persons to 100 areas throughout the nation who will play a central role in driving regional and community development.
Developing hardware and software digital infrastructure to support the Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation	Achieve 99.9% household optical fiber coverage by the end of FY2027. Achieve 5G population coverage of 95% nationwide by the end of FY2023, 97% nationwide by the end of FY2025, and 99% nationwide by the end of FY2030. Build a dozen or more regional data centers around the country in about five years. Complete the “Digital Garden City Superhighway” using submarine cables surrounding the islands of Japan by the end of FY2025.
Developing and securing human resources with digital skills	Train 2.3 million personnel to promote digitalization by the end of FY2026.
Ensuring that no one is left behind	Start the Digital Promotion Committee with more than 20,000 members nationwide in FY2022.