8. Demands For Independence of and Co-operation amongst Region Areas With the changes that are occurring in our society, the relative importance of population and industry is decreasing as aspects that affect the structure of the nation, and the relative significance of the historical weight of such aspects as climate, land and human exchange is increasing. There are calls for our national structure to be changed from the current situation whereby Tokyo represents the pivotal hub of a layered structure of urban centers, to a more even network based upon regional independence and co-operation. Revitalization of the transport infrastructure has seen the establishment of a traffic network that will provide the foundation for independence of and co-operation amongst regional areas. Even so, improvements in quality, such as increasing the speed of traffic flow are as important as ever. Also, with regard to regional transport, new perspectives are required to deal with issues such as easing the entanglement of private traffic and public transport, as well as running public transport systems after the abolition of regulations that have previously controlled supply and demand.

	Improving the Quality of the Network
	The introduction of the 'Komachi' service in March 1997. By linking the Shinkansen with existing services the distance between Tokyo and Akita can be covered as quickly as 3 hours 49 minutes, representing a reduction of 48 minutes in travel time for that sector.

9. Labor Availability Problems Some say that the lack of young workers - that results from the reduction in the number of young people in our population - can be overcome by encouraging women and the elderly into the workforce, or by utilizing information technology. Judging by the age of those currently employed in the transport industry, the "aging" will be relatively insignificant until around 2010. However, there is no room for optimism as the transport industry includes many labor-intensive areas, and it is possible that this problem will surface sooner or later in specific areas such as the distribution industry. Also, with the transport industry unable to solve labor-shortage problems by moving their production bases offshore, as their counterparts in manufacturing are able to do, the issue of accepting foreign workers will need to be considered. For this reason, in preparation for constrictions in the number of young workers available, early consideration, through joint male-female planning initiatives, needs to be given to adjustments which allow the active utilization of women elderly workers in the workforce. There is also a need to consider how the nation should, on a more general level, deal with the possibility of utilizing foreign labor.		Projections of number of people engaged in transport related work
		Note: This projection was calculated on the basis that the ratio, per age category, of all workers in the workforce made up by those employed in the transport industry will remain the same as in 1997, but in reality changes in the relative levels of wages will affect that ratio. Source:Ministry of Transport data

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