Interior Minister Lee Sang-min will visit Japan this week to look for ways to revive regional towns facing extinction and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the face of a demographic crisis, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
During the three-day trip, Lee is expected to visit Kamiyama, a town in Tokushima Prefecture, 650 kilometers from Toyko, on Thursday to meet local youth at one of the satellite offices in the region and visit a technical school founded to resolve the education issue for local children, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.
Tokushima Prefecture, which faced a risk of extinction after its population peaked at around 20,000 in the 1950s, is now home to some 690,000 people as of 2023. It recently saw the number of people moving into the area exceed those moving out, after projects to attract immigrants and revitalize the region were implemented.
On Friday, the interior minister will pay a visit to an art museum in Tokyo that was built with the country's hometown taxes, a donation of tax payments made to a municipality in exchange for gifts.
Lee will also examine the security and emergency evacuation facilities of government buildings and pay a visit to the Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park.
The interior ministry said Lee will have bilateral talks with Internal Affairs Minister Junji Suzuki, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Hiroya Masuda, the former minister of internal affairs and communications. (Yonhap)
