JP_OTHER
Hokkaido to Kyushu: 44% GDP gap from Tokyo, but Kyushu makes 20% of Japan's cars and Tohoku builds semiconductors despite demographic decline.
Japan's peripheral regions—Hokkaido, Tohoku, Chūgoku, Shikoku, Kyushu-Okinawa—collectively represent the nation's geographic diversity and economic challenge. The Bank of Japan's 2025 regional reports reveal the pattern: employment and income improving across most areas, but housing investment weak and production fluctuating. Southern Kanto's GDP per capita exceeds Kyushu-Okinawa's by 44%—stable regional disparity that policy has neither closed nor widened significantly since 2000.
Each region carries distinct character. Hokkaido's agriculture and tourism serve domestic markets. Tohoku continues post-2011 reconstruction while building semiconductor capacity. Chūgoku and northern Shikoku industrialized around the Seto Inland Sea. Kyushu hosts approximately 20% of Japanese automobile production—third after Chūkyō and Kantō—and manufactures semiconductors for global export.
The common thread is distance from Tokyo's gravitational pull. Young people migrate toward metropolitan employment; aging populations strain rural services. Yet these regions contain assets that urban density cannot replicate: agricultural capacity, natural resources, manufacturing heritage, and space for industries that congested metropolitan areas cannot accommodate.
By 2026, Japan's peripheral regions will likely continue their complicated reality: improving conditions within persistent structural disadvantages. The bet is whether semiconductor investments, renewable energy development, and post-pandemic tourism can generate momentum that demographic decline might otherwise preclude.