Revitalization of small city's downtown shopping streets in the Tohoku district

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In Tohoku Japan, there are 25 cities of 50,000-100,000 population. We visited some of these cities (Yokote, Kesennuma, Sukagawa, Gosyogawara, Kuroishi, Kuji, Kamaishi, Kitakata, Noshiro, Misawa) and inspected the situation of downtown shopping streets. And our conclusions are as follows:Most of these downtown shopping streets in local cities are face competition from new shopping center locating in the suburbs and many downtown stores close the shutters. Several cities has begun to put in serious efforts to downtown revitalization.One of these policies is to increase downtown residence. And another policy is to attract tourists to downtown district. The Japanese government is currently holding the Visit Japan Campaign to raise especially the number of foreign visitors to Japan. With this in mind, a region in Tohoku Japan need to begin its effot to get foreign tourists.