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This booklet is a summary of the Annual Report on the Transport Economy
(the White Paper on Transport) for fiscal 1988. The year 1988, which was
the 25th year since the White Paper on Transport was first published in 1964,
saw a phase in Japan's transport history; the four Japanese main islands were
joined together by the opening of the Seikan Tunnel and the Seto-ohashi Bridge.
In Chapter 1 titled,"Toward A 21st-Century Society," the report reviews what
socioeconomic changes expected transport to do; how transport responded to such
expectations; and what effect transport had on such changes during the past
quarter of a century. Thus, the report hopes to obtain basic suggestions about
the present policy tasks and a future vision.
Paying attention to diversified values in recent years, the report confirms
again that transport has close relations with the people's lifestyle and particulary
that the development of transport can change the lifestyle itself. The report
also mentions how transport is responding to such policy tasks as the solution
to Tokyo problems, the promotion of local industry, the effective and satisfying
use of free time for individual activities and contributions to international
society.
In the following chapters, the report refers to and analyzes the present
situations, the contents of measures, problems and future tasks in various administrative
fields, including JNR reform, passenger transport, the distribution of goods,
aviation, ocean-going shipping, shipbuilding, ports and harbors, and safety
measures.
We shall be very happy if this booklet can be of some help for those interested
in transport activity in Japan.
Hitoshi Takashima
Director-General of the Research
and Data Processing Department,
Transport Policy Bureau,
Ministry of Transport
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