Since early July, floods and landslides caused by heavy rain have forced tens of thousands of people from Kyushu to Tohoku to evacuate, with nearly three dozen deaths confirmed in western Japan. The financial damage to Oita Prefecture alone now stands at over ¥20 billion, prefectural officials announced last week.

For cities and prefectures already struggling with the needs of their shrinking and aging populations — often spread over a wide area — natural disasters made worse by climate change have created an additional financial burden they cannot afford to pass on to the younger taxpayers they are desperately trying to keep.

Many regional leaders are thus exploring ways to both slow population decline and mitigate the damage being caused by increasingly severe weather.