However, the prefectures showing the highest net growth are located near the major urban centers, such as Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, and Kanagawa around Tokyo, and Hyōgo, Nara, and Shiga near Osaka and Kyoto.
This pattern suggests a process of suburbanization, people moving away from the cities for affordable housing but still commuting there for work and recreation, rather than a true decentralization.
As the government and private corporations have stressed internationalization, greater numbers of individuals have been directly affected, decreasing Japan's historically claimed insularity.
Despite the benefits of experiencing life abroad, individuals who have lived outside Japan for extended periods often faced problems of discrimination upon their return because others might no longer consider them fully Japanese.
By the late 1980s, these problems, particularly the bullying of returnee children in the schools, had become a major public issue both in Japan and in Japanese communities abroad.