The government plans to cap the enrollment capacity at universities in Tokyo's 23 wards as part of its efforts to reverse the continuing population flight to the capital. The legislation, based on a report by an expert panel, will be submitted to the Diet next year. What immediate impact this controversial measure will have in dispersing the concentration of people in Tokyo remains to be seen, much less whether it will contribute to the government's target of balancing the region's net population inflow and outflow by 2020.

The case made by proponents of such a step — that the population flight must be curbed when youths from outside the Tokyo area enter universities in the capital — seems to make sense. In recent years, the annual net inflow of people of any age into the greater Tokyo area, which includes Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, has reached roughly 120,000. About 70,000 of that number is the net difference between youths leaving their hometowns to go to universities and two-year colleges in the greater Tokyo area than those in the area moving out to enter institutions outside the area.

Universities in Tokyo reportedly have the capacity to accept roughly twice the number of graduates from high schools in the capital who go on to higher education. Many of the students at universities in the metropolitan area will likely seek jobs in Tokyo-based companies and few will return to their hometowns to find work. Hence the argument that the enrollment capacity of universities in Tokyo should be capped to reverse the population influx.