Despite opposition by the business community, the upper house of parliament unanimously backed the proposal amid worries that American-style sprawl would be unhealthy as Japanese have fewer children.

The revised City Planning Law, which was already approved by the lower house, will go into effect by the end of next year, an upper house official said.

Under the law, shopping malls or amusement centers exceeding 10,000 square meters (108,000 square feet) would need special approval by resident representatives or changes to city plans.

Japan has seen a more than decade-old shift toward the suburbs by residents who buy cars to flee the famously high rents inside the densely populated cities.

But the Japanese population fell for the first time in peacetime last year and at current rates is expected to be cut to 60 million, or less than half the current total, by 2100.

Despite the bill's unanimous approval, the country's biggest business lobby, the Japan Business Federation, has fought anti-sprawl measures on the grounds they would discourage entrepreneurs by creating excessive regulations.

Motoshige Ito, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo, said that large shopping malls were natural as more Japanese use cars.

"With the revision to the law, it is easily imaginable that only smaller-sized shops will gather along the highways," Ito told the Sankei Shimbun newspaper.

A study last year by the land ministry predicted that if the population keeps falling, more Japanese will return to the cities as space opens up, increasingly turning suburbs into domains for the elderly.

More Japanese young people are putting off starting families, finding them to be a burden to their careers, finances and lifestyles.

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