Assessment and recommendations -- 1. Challenges and potential -- 2. New paradigms for territorial policies -- 3. Improving the effectiveness of policy -- List of boxes -- List of tables -- List of figures.

Japan has confronted important socio-economic challenges in recent years. Among them, low growth, population ageing and depopulation, and new trade relationships with East Asia, have made it necessary to transform the economic and institutional system established during times of economic and demographic expansion. Reform of regional development policies has made an important contribution to this on-going process. This report reviews reform in areas such as territorial planning, regional economic policy, urban policy, rural development, and administrative and fiscal decentralisation. It highlights the challenges facing the Japanese government as it combines new approaches to policy making at the central level with mechanisms that assign a greater voice to regional and local actors. The OECD Territorial Review of Japan is integrated into a wider programme of national territorial reviews undertaken by the OECD Territorial Development Policy Committee. The overall aim of the territorial review series is to provide practical policy advice to national governments.