Recent Deliberation of the Council for Relocation of the Diet and Other Organizations |
Now the Council is promoting investigation and study
in many fields such as topography, landscape, water supply, earthquakes and
other disasters to select candidate relocation sites for the Diet and other
organizations.
Recent Council deliberations on those themes are summarized
here.
| The target regions for the investigation (Hokuto,
Tokai, and Mie/Kio) were subdivided into 500m square segments and safety
against flooded rivers, high tides, landslides and slope failures was evaluated
in five categories for each segment. Regarding flood disasters, lands in the category of "general lowlands" were evaluated as areas with high flood disaster hazards in view of the past flood disaster which most lands in that category had suffered. For sediment disasters, each area was evaluated from four viewpoints as shown in the chart below. |
| In the future, more narrowly defined areas should be reevaluated when the area screening is advanced because the scopes of damage are relatively limited for these disasters. |
| It is rather difficult to correctly evaluate
the balance of water supply and demand for each region in the present phase
because it can be changed by dam development and water-conveyance from outsi de of the river basin. Therefore, an approximate evaluation of the stability of water supply in the present and future is compiled and studied from criteria such as the richness of water resources and the actual conditions of water utilization as shown in the chart below. |
(3)Study on Transportation
| It is desirable that
the new city, the relocation site of the Diet and other organizations, can
easily be visited from places in and outside of Japan, and also necessary
to be able to assure sufficient contact with Tokyo. |
| Domestic Transportation Network |
| Traffic between the new city and places throughout country is expected to be approximately from 28 to 63 thousand persons per day in one way travel for business at the Diet and other organizations as well as sightseeing, etc.. Regarding the transportation between each region and each places throughout the country, there are differences in convenience of present but it was evident that each region will be able to secure sufficient convenience in the future by establishing new air line routes and opening railroads now under construction traffic after the relocation. |
| Airport Functions and Access to the Airport |
| It is necessary for the airport of the new city
to have a runway enabling the exclusive take off and landing by planes of
heads of state and be accessible to the city center in about 40 minutes.
Airport functions required for the new city were studied, and it was shown
that some regions require runway extension and/or usage subdivision of airports
according to their usage, such as domestic and international. Required times
from each region to the airport were also compiled considering a prearranged
plan. |
| Access to Tokyo by Rail |
| It is important for the new city to keep sufficient contact with Tokyo, the economical and cultural base of Japan. The required time between the new city and Tokyo was studied assuming that a branch line was constructed to the new city could be. It was confirmed that every region fell within the range where business performed satisfactorily by a day trip (within around 2 hours one way by rail) though there were differences in the required time. |