2. “Diversity” (diverse city) where people live and shine

What should Tokyo do in face of these two sweeping changes of population decline and a super-aging society? To allow Tokyo to continue generating vitality, I believe that it is essential to invest in people. Now, let me talk about the initiatives to be taken to that end.

Stepping up efforts to prepare for a super-aging society

With the population aging at an unprecedented pace here, we urgently need to build a comprehensive regional care system, which seamlessly provides senior citizens with medical care, long-term care, housing, and other services in the familiar surroundings of their communities. Seniors have played leading roles in driving the growth of Tokyo and Japan, and many of them are still eager to be involved in various activities. So, under the slogan of “lifelong participation,” we will also create a society where seniors can play fulfilling roles by continuing to learn or work throughout their lives. We believe that this will help seniors stay mentally and physically fit and also help communities in continuing to generate vitality.

One idea is to encourage exchange among people of different generations in the community through better use of vacant houses. Another is to create an environment that fulfills the desire of mature people to learn more. We will explore the forms that a super-aging society should take by going beyond what we have done in the past and considering new approaches from a broader perspective.

Meanwhile, we are working on the formulation of the 7th Health and Welfare Plan for Senior Citizens for the three years from fiscal 2018 to address immediate issues. Making Tokyo a place where everyone can continue to live with peace of mind through community-based mutual support. We will focus on efforts to prepare for a super-aging society by presenting concrete measures such as building a foundation for long-term care services, increasing housing for the elderly, and promoting initiatives for securing long-term care workers.

Additional measures for reducing children waitlisted for day care

Over my past year in office, my highest priority has been measures for reducing the number of children waitlisted for day care with the aim of drawing out the potential of women and providing good care to the young generation so that they can forge a bright future. The number of children using day care services increased by 16,003 from last fiscal year. We will steadily advance multilayered measures, for which we have allocated a significant budget, to achieve our goal of reducing the number of waitlisted children to zero by the end of fiscal 2019.

We have also recently compiled additional measures to flexibly respond to the actual situation on the ground. The upper limit of subsidies to help service providers rent buildings will be raised by also utilizing the national government’s new subsidy program. We will accelerate the use of ICT technology at childcare facilities to make their operations more efficient, and will not neglect efforts to enhance the quality of day care, including support for the introduction of baby sensors to prevent serious accidents.

Empowering women

Also, we will strongly help women take on active roles in society.

For female entrepreneurs who have promising businesses or business plans and could become role models for many women, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) will provide programs for further honing their skills and opportunities to receive training overseas. We will also accelerate the development of startup support facilities for women, which provide on-site childcare. With these measures, we will provide support to female entrepreneurs.

To encourage women, particularly young women, to build a long-term career plan, we will hold the Forum for TOKYO Where Women Shine later on this year, inviting women who are working successfully on the frontlines. Comments and proposals made at the forum will be used to devise concrete initiatives.

Human resource development for future Tokyo and Japan

We will also actively invest in the development of human resources -- the source of future vitality.

At 20 metropolitan high schools, the Tokyo English Empowerment Project, in which students are given increased opportunities to use English in their school life to discuss current topics and in other occasions, started this month. The Tokyo Global Gateway, where children can acquire practical English communication skills through hands-on experience, is scheduled to open in a year, and it recently began taking reservations from schools in Tokyo.

With the working age population shrinking, we need to provide education that prepares children for a new era in which AI is employed. In cooperation with the Board of Education, we will conduct concrete studies, including how computer programming should be taught and how to nurture talent for Japan’s IT industry.

To provide better education, it is crucial to tackle problems at schools, especially at elementary schools. Class hours are increasing and the scheduled implementation of new education guidelines will further strengthen this trend. Given that this could impact the quality of education and force teachers to work long hours, we invited teachers to join us at the meeting of the Comprehensive Education Council last month to discuss the current state of elementary school education and its future form. In cooperation with the Board of Education, we will seriously tackle the issues of elementary school education, which forms the foundation for nurturing talent who will shape the future.