Japan Lawmaker Urges Move of Capital

A year ago, Japan’s Parliament approved a resolution to move the nation’s capital out of Tokyo.

But as one prominent politician, Shintaro Ishihara, said afterward, “When we voted for it, we were laughing all the way.”

Few Japanese seriously believe their government will help decongest Tokyo by transplanting itself to another site. The plan’s opponents--bureaucrats, the Tokyo government and national legislators from the city--have so far blocked a national consensus to carry out the idea.

But one man, Keijiro Murata, a member of the lower house and of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has been quietly working for more than a quarter-century to achieve a transfer of the capital.

He predicts that the relocation will start within three years. The main reason: People increasingly see Japan as too vulnerable if another disaster should hit the city, whose wealth and importance now help shape the world economy.

Just in this century, the city has been destroyed twice, first by the 1923 earthquake and then by American bombs in 1945.

“If it’s happened twice, it can happen three times,” Murata says. Some geologists predict an earthquake near Tokyo by early in the next century.

“Tokyo has become too concentrated with people, finance, resources and companies,” he says. “The risks are too high now.”

Added to the concern is the recent explosion in property prices that has eliminated the prospect of home ownership for about one-third of the city’s young adults within their lifetimes. Resentment is also rising in the rural areas that have fallen further and further behind Tokyo. Murata measures the public pulse by counting popular songs--anti-Tokyo tunes have become more common.

Democracy will not flourish if more power is concentrated in Tokyo, he says.