One year has passed since the effectively bankrupt city of Yubari in Hokkaido began a special fiscal rehabilitation process under the internal affairs ministry's supervision. It must repay ¥35.3 billion debts by the end of fiscal 2024. In the first year, it repaid about ¥1.5 billion as required. But this does not mean that the city's prospects have brightened.

Symbolic of the Yubari's plight was the recent collapse of a roof, weighted down by the accumulation of snow, over an indoor swimming pool in the city. Shoveling snow off the roof had become financially impossible as priority was given to financial reconstruction and services for city residents. City government workers' wages were slashed by an average of 30 percent. But the resignations of more city workers than expected have made it difficult to maintain services. City workers now number only 113, compared with the target of about 130 for fiscal 2009, and city services are already at the lowest level in the nation.

Yubari's population stood at 13,165 at the end of June 2006 but dropped by nearly a thousand people to 12,169 by the end of January 2008. Revenues for the city's fiscal 2008 general account budget are expected to be ¥8.302 billion, down 10.3 percent from fiscal 2007. Total spending is expected to be ¥7.237 billion. The ¥1.65 billion "surplus" will be used to repay debts. Spending for every existing item, except firefighting, will be reduced. The budget, however, does include ¥3 million to build an emergency communications system for old people living alone.