Hearings on Proposals of the National Strategic Special Zones (Sep 16-17)

The government of Japan on September 11 stopped accepting the first round of proposals from private companies or local governments for the National Strategic Special Zones in which deregulatory measures are to be taken in certain designated areas. There were totally 197 proposals from 181 private entities and 61 local governments (*the numerical mismatch is due to the joint-proposals by overlapping proposers).

The government’s Working Group on the National Strategic Special Zones has held hearings from the following 26 proposers on Sep 16-17 as continuance from the last week.

http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/tiiki/kokusentoc_wg/teian_hearing.html

（Japanese only）

September 16

●Mori Trust Holdings Inc.

●Tokyu Corporation

●Nippon Television City Corp., Nikken Sekkei Ltd.

●Fuji Television Network, Inc., Mitsui Fudosan Co. Ltd., Kajima Corp., The Nippon Foundation

●Niigata Prefecture, Niigata City, Joetsu City, Seiro Town

●Ishinomaki City

●Tottori Prefecture

●Shizuoka Prefecture

●Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima Medical Devices Industry Unit, Fukushima Seminars on Medical and Healthcare Devices

●Ishikawa Prefecture

●Japan Airport Terminal Co. Ltd.

●Sun-Based Economy Association

●Rakuten Inc.

●Eikoh Inc.

●ORIX Corp., ORIX Real Estate Corp.

●Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto City, Kyoto University, Kyoto San-Gaku-Kou Renkei Kikou, Kyoto Sangyouikusei Consortium

●Intellectual Property Strategy Network Inc.

●BlackRock Japan Co. Ltd.

●GREE Inc.

●The National Art Center, Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Mori Art Museum

September 17

●Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama City, Kawasaki City

●Tokyo Metropolitan Government

●Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City

●European Business Council in Japan

●Hokkaido Prefecture

●Fukuoka Prefecture

There were many propositions from the private corporations and the local governments in various industrial/technological/research fields including the finance, top medical and pharmaceutical practices, technology, logistics, environment/energy, etc., as well as propositions of strategic industrial concentration and accumulation regarding the urban foundation and infrastructure. Examples of such propositions include a safe and secure urban planning and social infrastructure and 24 hour-operation of Haneda Tokyo International Airport.

The government plans to continue hearings from the proposers and to process the first round of nomination as the National Strategic Special Zones in mid-October.

(Yoshiyuki KUROSAWA, PPPC Chief Researcher)