2.3. Port and Harbor Development System

2.3.3 Five-Year Investment Plan for Ports and Harbors

Beginning in the late 1950s, the Japanese economy saw rapid growth for approximately twenty years based on a series of national economic plans. The development of ports has proceeded systematically according to five-year plans for port improvement formulated along the lines of each national economic plan. Since these five-year port development plans are based on Emergency Measures Law for Port and Harbor Development, decisions on the scale of investment during the period of the plan follow Cabinet meetings. Based on the port development budgets submitted by port management bodies, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport compiles a budget for the Ports and Harbors Department designed to ensure the systematic implementation of these plans.
The budgets for executing the plans at the port management body level are determined each fiscal year by the Ministry of Finance, and the public port development projects are implemented after appropriate resolutions in the Diet.

The current plan, the Ninth Five-Year Investment Plan for Ports and Harbors, covers the seven-year period from fiscal 1996 to fiscal 2002. The plan's goals include the development of deepwater container terminals at gateway ports in four regions, development of container terminal bases at subsidiary gateway ports in eight regions, augmentation of the domestic distribution base for consolidated transport, and other measures that will help form an internationally competitive distribution network.