Recent Deliberation of the Council for Relocation of the Diet and Other Organizations |
The Council has been conducting in sequence investigation
and study on 16 themes aiming at selecting candidate relocation sites for the
Diet and other organizations. Results of the Council deliberations on all the
themes have been reported until the Council meeting held on July 20.
Council deliberations on the themes taken up on that day are
summarized here.
| In constructing the new city, which is the relocation site of capital functions, it is necessary to restrict continuation of urban area (sprawl around the new city and city continuation with the range of large cities such as an ordinace-designated city). Therefore, the possibility of continuation of urban area in each region was studied from four viewpoints as shown in the following chart. |
| It is also difficult for the new city to possess
all necessary urban functions, though the city is required to provide attractive
urban functions enabling 600 thousand inhabitants to live and work as well
as furnishing capital functions. Therefore, the desirable relation between
mother cities and the new city is that access to a city with 200 to 300
thousand inhabitants (such as the seat of a prefectural office), which can
provide daily life convenience to the new city under construction, is within
about 30 minutes and to a city with more than a million inhabitants (such
as an ordnance-designated city), which can supplement various needs, is
within about an hour. |
| No place in Japan is 100% safe from earthquakes,
but it is necessary to avoid regions which are in danger of suffering extensive
earthquake disasters when hit by strong earthquakes in selecting candidate
relocation sites. Therefore, seismic intensity was predicted based on the
present up-to-date knowledge about earthquakes which were deemed to cause
extensive social and economical effects. In addition, earthquake activity
and earthquake disasters that occurred in the past were compiled by regions. |
| The possibility of coordination between each district and each of Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya or Osaka was also studied from the standpoint of enhancing Japan's capability to deal with disasters. |
(3)Study on Environmental Load
| In constructing the new city, it is necessary to aim at an environmentally friendly city which can become the model for Japan and overseas considering the effects on the natural environment. Therefore, it was recommended that the new city should be a "Zero-Emission City (i.e., a city with zero environmental load)" after studying the environmental load imposed by urban activities in the new city from the following viewpoints. |
(4)Study on the National Land Structure
| In selecting the candidate relocation site,
it is also important to study the reorganizing effects caused by the difference
of relocation sites such as how Japan's national land structure would be
reorganized. Based on the results of questionnaires to well-informed persons (such as scholarly and experienced members of the National Land Development Council) conducted from Aril to June 1999 and on opinions from local autonomous organizations expressed so far, a study was made predicated on Japan's New Comprehensive National Development Plan and the significance of the capital function relocation to each region is compiled as shown in the following chart. |
