Parliament enacted a bill Wednesday to add six islands to Japan¡¯s list of inhabited border islands eligible for state aid to promote settlement.
The revised special measures law for the preservation of inhabited border islands calls for promoting stay-based tourism on listed islands and requiring prefectural governments?to make efforts to address depopulation.
The special measures law is designed to maintain bases for managing territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.
In line with the revision, the law, originally set to expire in March next year, will be extended until March 2037.
The six islands are Teuri and Yagishiri in Hokkaido, Tobishima in Yamagata Prefecture, Awashima in Niigata Prefecture, and Niijima and Shikinejima in Tokyo.
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