increase in the population aged 75 years or older for 2025.

In particular, the Toyoshikidai Housing Complex, with its ratio of aging population already exceeding 40%, is symbolic of an aging population in an urban area of future Japan (Figure 2-2-50).

For this reason, Kashiwa City is teaming up with Tokyo University and the Urban Renaissance Agency (UR Agency) to carry on approaches to developing a community in which “people can get aged in their own ways and in a familiar place,” which is Kashiwa is committed to driving the development of a community compatible with a society of longevity, in which “one can live a secure life in one’s home for long” and in which “one can stay healthy and active for long.” The city takes two approaches to achieve this goal: realizing a comprehensive regional care system and creating worth-living-for employment for elderly people. Projects evolving from these approaches are underway across the entire city centering on the Toyoshikidai area that encompasses the Toyoshikidai Housing Complex under reconstruction by the Urban Renaissance Agency (Figure 2-2-51).

Figure 2-2-50 Ratios of Elderly Populations in Toyoshikidai (2010)

Entire Kashiwa City	Toyoshikidai Housing Complex
Ratio of the population aged 65 years or older	20%	41%
Ratio of the population aged 75 years or older	8%	18%
Ratio of the number of persons aged 65 years or older and needing nursing care	12%	10%

Source) Kashiwa City

Figure 2-2-51 Conceptual Image of the Future of the Toyoshikidai Area People can live with pease of mind for long in their homes, with ready access to medical care, nursing and caring services

Various scenes of activity in the region to keep seniors up and runrig for long

Source) MLIT

The Comprehensive Regional Care System is a scheme of extending support necessary to realize a community in which elderly people can continue living in their homes in a familiar area. Its guiding principle is to provide the five facilities of nursing care, medicine, preventive medicine, livelihood support and dwelling within a “sphere of daily living” in which required services are essentially accessible within 30 minutes.”

The Toyoshikidai Housing Complex aims to create an easy, secure living environment for multi-generation families to live in, for example, by encouraging the moving-in of child-rearing families and attracting community dining halls to cater for all generations of people, as well as ensure access to home medical care and nursing care services, for example, by attracting elderly housing that comes complete with services and regional medical care centers in the premises of the complex.

In August 2014, the MLIT released “Guidelines for Promoting Community Development for Health, Medical Care and Welfare” in its bid to drive community development in coordination with “Comprehensive Regional Care System,” which is committed to delivering comprehensive support to elderly people from viewpoints of health, medical care and welfare so they can live a self-reliant life in their dear old homes.

## 3 Creation of a Country Generating Diverse Synergies among Regions

Apart from preceding discussions of the concept of “compact” and “networked”, its benefits, approaches to its implementation and so on, this section considers the relationship between it and the creation of a “country generating