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As a result of changes in industrial structure, diversification of people's
needs, and rising living standards, improvements in transportation services
related to physical distribution are becoming essential. However, obstacles
to improvement of physical distribution, such as road congestion, environmental
problems, and labor shortages, are increasing.
It is important, for sound development of the Japanese economy and for improvement
of people's standard of living, to overcome such obstructions and ensure smooth
distribution.
Truck transportation has come to make up more than half of the total volume
of domestic freight traffic in tonnage-kilometers. This increase is attributed
to the excellent mobility and convenience of trucks. However, such obstacles
as road congestion, environmental concerns, and labor shortages are too great
to allow us to expect to see continuing increases in truck transportation. Under
the circumstances, it is deemed a major policy priority to assess the excessive
reliance on truck transport and to promote a shift from trucks to railways or
maritime transport, which are more efficient.
In order to assure a smooth transition, a finance system within the Japan
Development Bank was created in 1993 to consolidate intermodal transportation
equipment and related information systems, and a "modal shift conference" was
started in May 1993 to examine the measures to enhance the shift.
To augment the capacity of railways and maritime transportation to which
transport demand is to be shifted, measures are being developed to provide interest-free
financing to railways through the Railway Development Fund for construction
and improvement of facilities, and to make the coastwise shipping vessel volume
adjustment system more flexible. Additional measure with increase of quotas
of the Maritime Credit Corp.'s business activity, and increase of the rate of
co-ownership of the Maritime Credit Corp., so as to enhance construction of
roll-on, roll-off vessels, ferry vessels designed to cover long distances, and
container vessels designed for transportation of small cargo such as container
cargo or general merchandise.
Most inner-city and aerial cargo transportation relies on truck transport.
Particularly common is the use of private trucks, which have no capacity to
transport consolidated cargo from different consignees different from commercial
trucks. Most such operations are one-way only, and as a result, efficiency is
unavoidably low. These issues are considered to decrease efficient distribution.
In response to such problems, the Ministry of Transport has been promoting
a measure to shift transportation from private trucks to commercial trucks carrying
consolidated cargos through the construction of cooperative distribution centers.
In addition, a survey was conducted in FY1993 for the purpose of creating "Guidelines
for Smooth Physical Distribution in Commercial/Business Integrated Areas."
In October 1992, an Ordinance to Accelerate Improvements in Efficiency Distribution
Business of Small and Medium Companies was implemented to support small and
medium-size companies whose progress in improving distribution efficiency was
unsatisfactory, due to fundamental weaknesses in their business. This ordinance
is expected to enhance the efficiency of cargo transportation through the application
of tax preference schemes to enhance business for small- and medium-distribution
companies.
The Ministry also announced a plan to modernize small and medium-size truck
transport businesses and lead them to make structural improvements based on
the plan.
In response to recent trends towards increased and diversified needs for
product distribution, it is necessary to construct distribution centers which
provide comprehensive functions, such as processing for distribution and a high
level of information-processing functions, in addition to simply warehousing
and sorting. The Ministry of Transport has been supporting such construction
by supplying interest-free financing to NTT, special tax treatment and a Financial
Investment Fund. The Ministry also implemented, in November 1993, a Revised
Ordinance on Construction of Distribution Business Towns, aimed at accelerating
the construction of distribution areas.
The recent increase in cargo imports, attributed to changes in industrial
structure and progressing international horizontal specialization of industrial
activities, is causing congestion of cargo handling facilities at ports and
airports. It appears that construction to augment the capacity of such facilities
is necessary.
The Ministry of Transport is planning to improve port facilities through
construction of container terminals and large-scale, multi-purpose terminals
to handle international cargo, and comprehensive terminals to handle imported
cargo, based on the "8th Five-Year Plan for Port Improvement." For airports,
the Ministry is planning the construction and expansion of capacity of cargo-handling
facilities at New Tokyo International Airport and Kansai International Airport
based on the "6th Five-Year Plan for Airport Improvement."
In addition to these measures, the Ministry approved projects in six areas
under the "Extraordinary Ordinance for Acceleration of Imports and Smooth Domestic
Investment" implemented in July 1992, and provision of "Import Acceleration
Areas" is to be pursued forthwith in various areas.
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