## 2 ) Domestic passenger ship business

Regarding the domestics passenger ship business, the number of business operators as of the 1 $ ^{st} $ of April 2009 was 970 (an increase of 1 when compared with that of the previous year) and the number of passengers in FY 2007 was 1.0079 billion (an increase of 1.7% when compared with that of the previous year). On the other hand, in FY 2008, due to the economic recession and other reasons, the severe business conditions remain. Withdrawals are coming one after another because of the decrease in frequency due to the great decrease in transportation volume, especially for the ferry business, which is expected to act as a participant in the modal shift. Therefore, the support for invigoration is being provided through competitiveness reinforcement and convenience improvement by uplifting the attractiveness of cruises, cooperating with the tourism industry and economizing energy, etc.

## 3 ) Domestic marine transportation

Domestic marine transportation is not only high in economic efficiency but also excellent in environment conservation. It shoulders 40% of domestic logistics and 80% of essential industrial material transportation. It is also the key transportation service for supporting our country’s economy and citizens’ daily lives.

At present, due to the demand for further improvement for reinforcing industrial competitiveness and measures for deepening earth environment problems, it is necessary to steadily provide efficient, high dependency and high quality transportation services.

However, recently, in addition to the deterioration of business conditions due to the rapid jump in the petroleum price, the Japanese economy is also in rapid recession. Freight transportation volume

Note: 1. Total number of operators providing regular line services for general travelers/specific travelers and one providing irregular service for travelers.

2. The numbers of operators as of April 1 each year.

## Transition in the Number of Domestic Transportation Ships

Note: Average gross tonnage for each vessel = gross tonnage/number of vessels

2. The numbers represent those at the end of each fiscal year

Source: Materials provided by the Maritime Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

is greatly decreasing and there are concerns over business deterioration due to excessive ship spaces and a slowdown of new ship construction for replacing old ships. In order to cope with the situation, support is being provided for the replacement of construction contributing to environmental functionality enhancement by utilizing the common construction system. At the same time, the project on disposal of old ships for domestic transportation was established in FY 2009 and support was provided for pushing forward construction of old ship replacements. Moreover, support is also being provided to grouping measures for improving the industrial structure and the smooth and steady implementation of the project on temporary measures on domestic marine transportation $ ^{1} $ .

## 4 ) Port transportation business

The port transportation business is playing an important role as a hub for land and marine transportation. From the viewpoint of enhancing business efficiency and providing diversified services, the “Port Transportation Act” was revised. For the 9 major ports and other ports, from November 2000 and May 2006 respectively, business participation was changed from a license basis to permission basis and the fare/charge was changed from an approval basis to a reporting basis in order to relax regulations (As of 1 $ ^{st} $ April 2009, the number of new permissions, changes of business scope and fare/charge reports were 25, 170 and 654 respectively).