The Diet Deliberation Initiated
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-The discussions concerning selection of the relocation site will
be commenced with the Diet as the central authority based on the
report submitted by the Council for Relocation of the Diet and Other
Organizations in December 1999. |
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-The Special Committee for Relocation of the Diet and Other Organizations
of the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors (referred
to as the Special Committee for Relocation of the Diet and Other
Organizations) invited the Council Chairman and other persons to
listen to their explanation and also held a question and answer
session (for details, please refer to the minutes of the proceedings
of the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors. The
minutes can also be seen on the National Diet Library Homepage (http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp).). |
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Meeting of the Special Committee for Relocation of the
Diet and Other Organizations of the House of Representatives on
February 18 |
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Meeting of the Special Committee for Relocation of the
Diet and Other Organizations of the House of Councilors on March
7 |
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-The Council Chairman, Wataru Mori, explained the details of the
Council report and the deliberation progress towards deciding candidate
relocation sites. Mr. Mori mentioned that the national consensus
has been formulated and it was important to foster the capital-function
city even after the relocation decision. He said that the construction
of new information network systems and compatibility with the environments
could be cited as items to be established in the capital-function
city and he earnestly desired the Diet to discuss the problem from
wider viewpoints to rapidly come to an appropriate conclusion.
-Based on his statement, discussions developed concerning the future
progress of Japan, how to proceed in comparison with Tokyo, and
the status of the national consensus formation. |
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Meeting of the Special Committee for Relocation of the
Diet and Other Organizations of the House of Representatives on
March 23 |
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-A question and answer session was held together with Chief Cabinet
Secretary Mikio Aoki and Director-General Masaaki Nakayama of the
National Land Agency (Minister in charge of the capital function
relocation) and problems such as how the relocation should be studied
and coped with in the future were discussed. |
Introduction of the Reported Regions |
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-In the Council report dated December 1999, the "Tochigi-Fukushima
Region" and the "Gifu-Aichi Region" were cited as
candidate relocation sites, and the "Mie-Kio Region" as
a region which may possibly become a candidate relocation site in
the future.
--The characteristics of each region are as follows: |
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| -Tochigi-Fukushima
Region |
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-The new city would be located on the Tohoku axis,
the main axis of the Hokuto district, enabling easy
collaboration with Tokyo and Sendai, and the support
and collaboration by Utsunomiya, Koriyama and other
cities could be expected in both aspects of life
and business. Collaboration could also be possible
with areas along the Sea of Japan via the Ban'etsu
Expressway. |
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-This region would further increase its reison
d' tre by collaborating with Ibaraki district on
the Joban axis. |
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-Miyagi district on the Tohoku axis together with
Sendai would be expected to become the support base
for collaborations with the new city. |
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-Since a serious disaster could occur along the
Naka River in the Nasu district if Mt. Nasu erupts,
the problems in siting the new city would be to
carefully consider the layout of the city functions
and take appropriate measures to avoid such disasters. |
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| AGifu-Aichi Region |
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-The new city would be located in the Chukyo Zone where
easy collaboration with Tokyo and Nagoya could be possible
and infrastructure to support the capital function would
be assumed to be formulated on the axis connecting to the
Chubu International Airport as well as the Tomei axis. Collaboration
with areas along the Sea of Japan would also be remarkably
strengthened. |
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-When the Chubu International Airport is inaugurated and
a new high-speed transportation network passes through this
region, it is expected that the new city and Nagoya would
make rapid progress in many aspects, including international
affairs. |
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-Shizuoka-Aichi Region would be expected to become the
base for support and collaboration utilizing its traffic
convenience. |
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-Since part of the region might be prone to disaster when
a large-scale trench type earthquake occurs, the city function
layout, disaster prevention measures and assurance of traffic
and information in case of serious disasters are problems
for urgent study. |
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| BMie-Kio Region |
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-This Region lies across the Kansai Zone and the Chukyo
Zone, and is located near the Kinai district which has played
a leading part in creating and inheriting traditional culture
for a long time. It has a long history, and collaboration
with areas along the Sea of Japan would be easy. The Region
has characteristics that the other regions do not have because
of the accumulation of various functions and cultures of
Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and other cities, and the effective utilization
of various facilities could be expected. |
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-The Region could possibly become a candidate relocation
site once a new high-speed traffic network is established. |
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-Because strong magnitude earthquakes are often predicted
when large-scale trench-type earthquakes occur, city function
layout, disaster prevention measures and the assurance of
traffic and information in case of serious diasters are
problems for urgent study. |
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Complete Measures Taken against Land Speculation |
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-In the regions designated as the candidate sites,
it is necessary to avoid speculative land transactions and sudden
increases of land prices. Therefore, in the related prefectures,
monitoring areas were designated in accordance with the Act for
Planning the Utilization of the National Land immediately after
submission of the Council report. Prior examinations concerning
the volume and purposes of land transactions exceeding the specified
scales are being conducted in the monitoring areas, and advice and
recommendation will be given for unlawful transactions. |
National Opinions Concerning Capital Function Relocation |
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-The Council for Relocation of the Diet and Other Organizations
categorized the main opinions proposed in the Council meetings,
public hearings, various symposia, and mass media .
--Some opinions are summarized here following those shown on leaflet
No. 9. |
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2. Concrete Significance and Effects
Reform of the Overall National Policy |
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| Positive
Opinions |
Cautious
Opinions |
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Reform of the Whole National Policy to
be Accelerated |
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-Relocation is an important opportunity or turning
point to review the whole national policy from its
origin. Materially showing the separation of politics
from economics will greatly impress the nation with
the reform furnishing measures to accelerate the
reform. |
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-Since the Relocation and various reforms are,
so to speak, like two wheels of a car mating in
the same direction, they represent a shortcut in
letting the nation understand the Relocation as
a promotion of unity. |
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-Decentralization of authority has been tried
many times, but satisfactory results have never
been obtained. The Relocation will provide good
measures towards realizing a small government and
drastically promote decentralization. |
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Local Autonomy Augmented |
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-View points for formulating policies tend to
be focused on Tokyo because Tokyo has both political
and administrative functions. It is important to
dispose civil officials in a place where neutrality
of information is maintained to assure the fairness
of information. |
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-Considering Tokyo as a local city after the relocation,
even though it is gigantic, the relative relationship
in power between the state and the localities, the
"large center" and the "small localities,"
will help to break down the precedence-consciousness
associated with Tokyo as the core, and augment the
autonomy of all districts throughout the country. |
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Priority Should be Given to Decentralization
and Deregulation |
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-It is emotional or an escape from reality to
think that any sense of blockage would be broken
down, or reform of national policy and decentralization
of authority would be promoted, if relocation is
conducted without seriously coping with reform. |
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-Even if the necessity of the reform is accepted,
there is neither inevitability of relating the Relocation
to it nor guarantee that the Relocation will promote
the reform. Therefore, the priority should be given
to the decentralization and deregulation. |
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-Decentralization of capital functions is important,
and in the final analysis the idea of promoting
minimization of the central government to reach
the state or federal system level may arise. |
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Main Current Trends in the Diet and the Government |
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Related to the Diet |
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| February 18, 2000 |
The Special Committee of the House of Representatives
held a session inviting Chairman of the Council Wataru Mori
and Vice Chairman Nobuo Ishihara. |
| March 7, 2000 |
The Special Committee of the House of Councilors held
a session inviting Chairman Wataru Mori of the Council. |
| March 23, 2000 |
The Special Committee of the House of the Councilors held
a session inviting Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki and
Director-General of the National Land Agency Masaaki Nakayama. |
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Related to the Government |
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| February 15, 2000 |
February 15, 2000 Joint session of the 32nd meeting of
the Council and 22nd meeting of of the Investigation Subcommittee
of the Council held |
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| TOPIC |
Announcement
of the Results of the Questionnaire Survey and Invitation
of Ideas Concerning the New City, the Capital Function
Relocation Site!! |
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-As introduced in the last issue of the
leaflet, the National Land Agency is promoting the development
of the "Capital-Function City Experiencing System"
that enables a virtual experience of the urban environments
and urban activities of the new city relocation site.
The Agency conducted a questionnaire survey and invited
ideas concerning how to relocate the capital functions
from the view point of promoting development. |
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| Internet Questionnaire
Survey |
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-A questionnaire survey was conducted
on the desired appearance for the capital-function
city and answers were obtained from
12,489 persons. Among the answers, the
results concerning "Points of Appeal
of the Capital-Function City" are
as shown in the figure on the right. |
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(Period of the Survey: From December
1999 to January 2000) |
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| Invitation of
Ideas |
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-Eighty-four ideas concerning urban
construction, such as measures to decrease
environmental load and the urban traffic
system, and 49 ideas on the lifestyles
of people living in and visiting the
capital-function city were submitted.
-A total seven articles were accepted,
with the the theme "Renovation
of Global Environments" selected
as the best. |
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(Period of Invitation: December 1999
to January 2000) |
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Accessing Various Information |
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-Various information concerning the capital functions relocation
has been being provided on the National Land Agency Homepage on
the Internet.
--Also if you are interested in items described in this leaflet
and others, please let us know. We will pleasingly send related
documents to you. We are awaiting your contact. |
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| We are Waiting for Your
Contact |
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Address: Capital Functions Relocation Planning Division, Metropolitan
Areas Development Bureau, National Land Agency
2-2 Kasumigaseki 1-Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-9972 JAPAN
Homepage: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kokudokeikaku/iten/index.html
E-mail:hqt-itenka(a)gxb.mlit.go.jp （Please replace (a) with @）
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