Renan Santos: It all started with the city of Yubari, a mining town in Japan that declared bankruptcy in 2007.
Renan Santos: Because mining activity declined, that city simply went broke and the Japanese government needed to do something.
What they did was create very specific legislation to monitor and assist those municipalities in getting out of bankruptcy.
Renan Santos: They used lots of performance indicators and very strict evaluation criteria to see whether it was worth that city continuing to exist.
Renan Santos: Cities that couldn't meet those indicators would either be subject to federal intervention or would merge with neighboring cities.