## (2) Streamlining the flow of inner-city physical distribution

Suburban areas designed for physical distribution $ ^{Note 1} $ had been developed in 22 cities and 29 locations (27 of which are already in service) by March 2013 in accordance with the Act on the Improvement of Urban Distribution Centers to enhance the urban functions of logistics and streamline road traffic through intensive location of distribution facilities.

To prevent roadside parking for cargo handling, the Ministry has encouraged local governments to include the installation of parking spaces for cargo handling in their municipal parking ordinances. As of the end of March 2012, municipal ordinances were amended in 88 cities to dictate the installation of parking spaces for cargo handling at commercial instillations having a certain scale or larger.

Measures that have been taken to streamline traffic flow include intensive actions directed at congestion bottlenecks, multi-layerization of traffic intersection and resolution of railway crossings nearly closed at all times. In parallel, software measures, such as those aimed at driving joint transportation and delivery pursuant to the Low Carbon City Promotion Act and encouraging migration the use of private trucks to the use of commercial trucks $ ^{Note 2} $ to boost load efficient, have been driven.

## (3) Further efforts to implement logistic services that are more sophisticated and that deliver better total efficiency

To accelerate the implementation of the 3PL business $ ^{Note 3} $ further, the Ministry not only arranges for the environment in which physical distributors find it easier to make inroads into the 3PL business easier, by hosting human resources development and training sessions, publicizing regional business models and so on, but also seeks to generalize and simplify the flow of physical distribution through a system of accreditation for total efficiency plans $ ^{Note 4} $ in accordance with the Act on the Improvement of Urban Distribution Centers. As of the end of March 2013, 184 total efficiency plans were accredited in accordance with the Act.

## Section 3 Reactivating Industries

## 1 Trends in Railway Industries and Measures

## (1) Railway business

## ① Trends and measures in the railway business

The number of railway passengers carried in FY2011 moved crabwise from its year earlier level. At Japan Railway, transportation on Shinkansen increased while transportation on conventional railway lines transitioned sideways, with transportation on private railways on the decrease.

The volume of railway freight transportation for FY2011 slipped in both annual tonnage and ton-kilometers under the influence of suspended production in the manufacturing businesses hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and disrupted routes of transportation.

In the circumstances, each railway operator pursues to create a comfortable and safe railways space in its own way, for example, by promoting a numbering plan in which letters and numerals are written side by side in route and station names. In the wake of East Japan Railway Company’s IC card, Suica, inaugurated in 2001, commuting IC cards have been introduced in succession, such that starting March 23, 2013, a total of 10 kinds of IC card tickets issued by five companies of Japan Railway and five major private railways in the Tokyo metropolitan, Nagoya, Kinki and Kyushu areas will be made interoperable, promising a further boost in the user convenience.