The plan calls for:

(1) checking up infrastructures periodically and repairing or renewing them as appropriate and keeping the information in chart form in a database to create maintenance cycles;

(2) moving ahead with further cost reductions by leveraging maintenance technologies and with lifetime extension strategically based on the concept of preventive maintenance, thereby leveling the burdens of maintenance spending; and

(3) providing financial support by granting disaster preparedness and safety subsidies and technical support by offering standards and manuals.

The MLIT is committed to a continuing program of approaching measures against aging infrastructures on a prioritized and planned basis so that required infrastructures will be kept sustainable from now on.

(2) Social Infrastructures Maintenance Strategy Subcommittee and Technicians Qualification Systems Subcommittee

Prioritized measures to be taken by the MLIT and local public entities, etc. and estimates of the future costs of maintenance/management and renewal (Figure II-2-2-3), etc. were examined and debated at the Social Infrastructures Maintenance Strategy Subcommittee instituted on July, 2012 under the Infrastructure Development Council and the Traffic Policy Council. In FY2014, those matters that dictate further discussion to implement what had been set forth in “Recommendations on Maintaining, Managing and Renewing Social Infrastructures” compiled in December 2013 were reviewed and debated to come up with proposals on the future directions of the four review subjects:

1. Establishing a qualification system for checkups and diagnostics

2. Organizational framework for expediting maintenance and management, and support extended to local public entities, etc.

3. Sharing and visualizing information pertaining to maintenance, management and renewal.

Regarding “1. Establishing a qualification system for checkups and diagnostics” among these proposals,

## Figure II-2-2-3 Estimated Costs of Maintenance/management and renewal

According to the preliminary calculations by the MLIT on the basis of discussions at the technology task force “Subcommittee on Social Infrastructure Maintenance Strategies” of the Technology Group of the Infrastructure Development Council and the Traffic Policy Council, maintenance, management, and renewal costs were approximately 3.6 trillion yen in FY2013, and estimated to be 4.3 to 5.1 trillion yen 10 years later and 4.6 to 5.5 trillion yen 20 years later.

Fiscal year	Estimated result
(FY2013)	Approx. 3.6 trillion yen
FY2023 (10 years later)	Approx. 4.3 to 5.1 trillion yen
FY2033 (20 years later)	Approx. 4.6 to 5.5 trillion yen

$ ^{*1} $ The number of facilities falling in each of the 10 fields of social infrastructures (roads, flood control, sewer systems, ports and harbors, public housing, parks, coasts, airports, aids to navigation, governmental facilities) over which the MLIT has jurisdiction and that are managed by the state, local public entities, Regional Road Public Corporations or Japan Water Agency, an incorporated administrative agency, has been checked by year of initial construction for estimation, with records of their maintenance/management, renewal, etc. taken into account.

$ ^{*} $ 2 No allowance is made for the volumes of new construction and retirement in the future, because they are difficult to estimate.

*3 Functional enhancements occurring to facilities on renewal are to update them with equivalent functionalities (including responses to the current quake-resistance standards).

*4 Land, compensation and natural disaster relief expenses not included.

*5 Individual social infrastructures are given some latitude in their estimates, because their costs of maintenance/management and renewal vary depending on where they are located, or to what extent they have been damaged, and on the constraints that are placed on their maintenance/management and renewal work.

Source) MLIT

“Regulations for Registering Technicians Qualifications to Help Assure Quality for Surveys into Public Works and for Their Design, etc.” were announced in November of the same year to inaugurate a registration system for private qualifications.” The regulations spell out the kinds of knowledge and expertise required for specific kinds of tasks, such as checkups and diagnostics, and seek to foster technicians and encourage their utilization, in response to the “Emergency Recommendations on Establishing Social Infrastructures management: Inauguration of a Registration System for Private Qualifications” compiled in August 2014 at the Technology Task Force of the Technology Group of the Infrastructure Development Council and the Transport Policy Council. Qualifications registered on these regulations have been used for setting ordering requirements for FY2015 projects.

Further, the Technicians Qualification Subcommittee was inaugurated under the Task Force to start probing into qualifications in newly evolving fields of industry, which have a close bearing on the maintenance and management of social infrastructures.