(HARA
Eiji, PPPC President)
It
was this January when Prime Minister Abe announced “to drill through the ‘bedrock
regulations’ in the National Strategic Special Zones” in Davos, which means 10
months has already passed. Given that many of the bedrock regulations are based
on laws and therefore their reforms require legislative revisions, the time
left in the current extraordinary Diet session is quite limited. It is a test
for the Cabinet to what extent it could tackle with these challenges in this
extraordinary and the next ordinary Diet sessions.
The
National Strategic Special Zones Act was enacted in 2013, in which certain
deregulations were accomplished in the themes of floor-ratio regulation,
specification of employment rules (guideline and consulting center), partial
relaxations of floor-to-bed ratio in hospitals, partial reform of agricultural
committee, etc. Simultaneously, the NSSZ Advisory Council and NSSZ Regional
Committee were established as Prime Minister-led framework to break through the
regulations.
Nonetheless,
there was no addition of regulatory reform menu in the ordinary Diet session
convened in January 2014. Consequently, after the Cabinet reshuffle in
September, the additional reform menu to be proposed in this extraordinary Diet
session under the new leadership was arranged in the NSSZ Advisory Council
meeting on October 10.
The
menu is as follows (details are available from the following website)
1.
Improvement
and Globalization of Business Environment
1.1
Establishment
of one-stop center for various applications to promote corporatizing and
venture businesses including foreigners
1.2
Notarization
of statutes by notary outside official notary center
1.3
Utilization
of foreign human resources supporting housekeeping
1.4
Promotion
of acceptance of diverse foreigners including entrepreneurs
1.5
Promotion
of activities by those having the bar qualification in foreign countries
2
Opening
Public Infrastructures to the Private Sector
2.1
Opening
management of public schools to the private sector (lifting ban on privately-managed
public schools)
2.2
Relaxation
of human resource movement across the public-private boundary
3
Construction
of Sustainable Social Security
3.1
Revision
of qualification as chairman of medical corporations
3.2
Relaxation
of working hours of aged workers engaging in agriculture and others
3.3
Creation
of “local nurses” (tentative)
4
Construction
of New Model of Local Revitalization
4.1
Simplification
of procedures for establishing NPOs
4.2
Expansion
of leasing and utilization of the national forests by the private sector
There
was certain advancement in the fields including the longstanding challenges
such as efficient use of public infrastructures and social security experiments
along with creation of global business center (urban) and local revitalization
model (rural).
Still,
it is not a hundred percent score given the “two years” goal. Especially, there
are yet satisfactory measures in the fields of…
l Reforms in agriculture
which can be the last card of “local revitalization” (corporate entry, etc.)
l Advancements in the
employment reform to promote further mobilization of human resources into
growing industries
l Reforms of medical
care, nursing and nursery
For
now, the menu arranged this time must be processed smoothly in this Diet and
further efforts in eye of the ordinary Diet session are expected.
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