The central government must exert control over the regions to push through regulatory reforms needed for economic revival, said the head of a council on special economic zones.
"Things will turn really bad when you just rely on local governments," Tatsuo Hatta, 72, said in a recent interview in Tokyo. Special zones give the government the authority to act in areas where local authorities have discretion and "tell them what to do," he said.
Hatta, who pioneered a series of regulatory overhauls from zoning changes to medical innovation, said Japan should focus on boosting productivity to improve prospects for the economy over the longer term. This should take precedence over efforts to curb the population decline, he said.
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