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The story
On September 1, Hiroshima Prefecture held its first-ever roundtable between Governor Mika Yokota and the heads of five prefectural economic organizations, including Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Matsufuji, to discuss how to make the prefecture more attractive to young people and how to draw in IT companies. The prefecture plans to factor the discussion into future policy. On 5ch, reactions split between those citing Hiroshima’s geographic disadvantage — far from Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka alike — and those pointing to homegrown problems like the education system and local peer pressure, with the thread also lighting up over the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
On the 1st, the governor and business leaders held their first-ever roundtable aimed at feeding opinions into the prefecture’s future policies.
The roundtable was attended by Governor Yokota along with the heads of five prefectural economic organizations, including Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Matsufuji.
Governor Mika Yokota
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Hokkaido -6,336
Tohoku -23,411
Northern Kanto -13,936
Southern Kanto +125,458
Koshin'etsu/Hokuriku -20,135
Tokai -12,427
Kinki +289
Chugoku -16,044
Shikoku -10,606
Kyushu -20,171
Okinawa -2,681
Southern Kanto wins in a landslide lol
As a result, the actual problem just sits there untouched (the environment stays bad).
So no matter what they do, nothing ends up growing.
The problem isn't the grass, it's the soil.
There was grass here before — it just withered.
Well said.
Fixing the soil means stripping away vested interests, so of course the resistance is fierce.
The honest truth is they just want young blood to prop up those vested interests, so the place is doomed to wither where it stands.
If they really cared about the region, it's the old guard who should leave.
Resort's gratin dish.
There's oysters, and Calbee potato chips too, you know
It's far from Tokyo, obviously, but also from Osaka and Fukuoka — nobody finds a place like that appealing.
Whatever they try, it's pointless.
Isn't it like 4 hours from Tokyo either by plane or shinkansen?
That's rough.
I genuinely hate that.
Back when I was transferred to Hiroshima for work, the Carp were the only topic anyone ever had.
Just as tiresome as Osaka people going on about the Hanshin Tigers.
Just give up on that one.
They're winning 1-0 right now lol
Go to Fukuoka and it's nothing but Hawks talk.
Seems like a cult-like peer pressure common to all of western Japan.
Unless you interpret it through the 'correct' understanding of its history,
you'll never grasp how to escape this sorrow.
It's Hiroshima Toyo — as in Toyo Kogyo, come on (Toyo Kogyo was the automaker, now Mazda, that founded the team)
That's exactly why people leave.
Young people have no interest in baseball.
Well, I figured they'd go with the bases-loaded walk strategy.
What about reviewing the school report-card system (naishin) and swapping out the teachers?
In Yokohama, you're free to be a Hanshin fan.
This year's All-Star Game was full of Nippon-Ham Fighters fans anyway.
And then everyone's fighting over land so it's expensive, while wages stay low.
And then you get massive landslides.
I really think they shouldn't be developing places with a mountain slope right behind them.
Sanfrecce's boost is just the new-stadium effect — same as what happened when Mazda Stadium opened.
Even with the Carp's stadium half-empty, their annual attendance is still several times higher than Sanfrecce's.
Soccer just doesn't work as a business here, fundamentally.
That says it all.
Otafuku Sauce (the local okonomiyaki-sauce maker)
Oysters, conger eel, Calbee, Daiso, lemons, Kure…
Plenty if you actually look. Got a problem?
Build a hub somewhere else.
Higashihiroshima City tried to become a place where young people would settle down, and that failed too, didn't it.
And that's where Higashihiroshima City comes in lol
Background and Key Points of the Debate
This roundtable was the first venue Hiroshima Prefecture has set up with its five prefectural economic organizations (including the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce and Industry), framed as an effort by Governor Yokota to gather input on curbing the outflow of young people and attracting IT companies ahead of future policymaking. The backdrop is the perennial concentration of population in Tokyo and Southern Kanto seen year after year in reports like the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ population migration data — a trend also borne out by the 2025 net-migration-by-age figures posted at the top of the thread. The thread split mainly over two points: one view holds that Hiroshima’s geographic handicap (far from Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka alike) is the root cause and can’t be fixed by policy; the other holds that homegrown issues — the education system and local insularity (the naishin report-card system, peer pressure) — should be addressed first. The back-and-forth over the Carp’s popularity lit up as a topic distinctly Hiroshima’s own, though it’s worth noting that attendance figures and the like were based on posters’ own memory or impressions, not confirmed official statistics.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “‘What It Takes to Be Chosen by Young People’ — Boosting Hiroshima’s Appeal: Governor and Business Leaders Talk, Including the Need to Attract IT Industry, to Be Reflected in Future Policy.”
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