Continuing from the part 3.
5.3. Results: slowing down the trend or trend reversal?
Some work, especially on the local level, have been successful in reversing the trend. Hokkaido targeted the retirees as potential in-migrators to the countryside. According to a questionnaire in Tokyo, 80% of the respondents had interest in living in Hokkaido and 70% of them wanted rural living instead of cities (Murakami et al., 2009). This would bring a net economic profit to the region even when the costs of increasing social security costs are counted. Initial testing period showed several hundred people from Tokyo spending extensive time in Hokkaido and benefitting the local industry (Murakami et al., 2009). Unfortunately, these kinds of successes are far and few between on the national scale.