Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
Use of female labor force is important to achieve sustained economic growth for Japan while aging of the population and falling birthrates prevail. Boosting female participation in the industries in the fields of national land and transport would be essential.

Graphic 210

Number of Female Bus Drivers and Changes in the Ratio of the Number of Female Bus Drivers

(Note) Ratio of the number of female bus drivers: (Public corporation) The number of female bus drivers in July of each year announced by the Nihon Bus Association divided by the total number of bus drivers.

Source) Developed by MLIT from: "Statistics of Automobiles 2012" compiled by the (Public corporation) Nihon Bus Association and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

## ① Installation of childcare amenities as part of railway stations, etc

The betterment of childcare services is a key element for women seeking to be successful at both their childcare and career. Particularly, the childcare support amenities set up as part of railway stations allow these female workers to leave their children under care on their way to work and also have access to a variety of facilities, particularly those installed in and around the stations, such as medical, welfare and administrative facilities, supporting the lives of women who work their ways to raise children. For this reason,

Graphic 211

Concept of Childcare Facilities Installed As part of Railway Stations or the Like

Keisei Electric Railway (Daijingu Shita Station) (Funabashi Pico Rail Nursery School)

Source) MLIT

life support facilities, such as childcare amenities, are installed as part of existing railway stations through the implementation of General Improvement of Railway Stations or the like to augment the convenience for child-raising families around the stations (Graphic 211).

## ② Improvement of the environment for female employment

Various efforts are ongoing in industries relating to national land and transport to encourage women to work outside. The ratio of the number of female employees to the total work force in the construction industry used to be low when compared with other industries, because the construction industry had traditionally been thought of as a “workplace for men.” But the entrepreneurs have now begun to promote the continued employment of female workers. Ongoing moves to broaden the scope of job fields for women include, for example, active employment of female employees as sales staff for a housing remodeling business previously dominated by men, out of the idea that taking advantage of the perspectives of women could help come up with better suggestions to address the various sensitivities needed for home building. Further, various efforts aimed at supporting the career of female employees are in place, including an enhanced childcare leave or short-time work system and the implementation of various training programs and positive appointment of female managers.
## Column

# Efforts Directed at Broadening the Environment for Women at Work

The home delivery service business tends to be thought of as masculine work, but it now promises a growing job opportunity for women as cargoes continue to get lighter and smaller in the present context of proliferating Internet sales. Also, customers increasingly praise the meticulous services delivered by female workers, such as heeding the direction in which cargoes are placed on delivery.

Focusing on the home delivery service business, Sagawa Express Co., Ltd. promotes the development and promotion of female employees mainly as drivers and many of such female employees are at work at the service centers where freight is collected and delivered on trucks or on tricycles. Female employees now account for about 20% of the total work force in the group. Sagawa Express aims to boost this ratio to 30% by 2014. As part of this aim, the company introduced three-wheeled electric vehicles in Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City in September 2012 to help lighten environmental load and to provide a new

means of delivery for women. For women who may recoil at the thought of driving trucks, the compact yet agile three-wheeled electric vehicles might allow them to collect and deliver cargoes efficiently through alleys or on slopes.

Developments in the number of cargoes weighing up to 30 kg handled by home delivery service

(Note) The home delivery service refers to special loading motor truck transportation or a similar form of transportation of each individual cargo under a special assigned name, weighing up to 30 kg.

Source) MLIT

A Scene of Delivery on an Three-Wheeled Electric Vehicle

Source) Sagawa Express Co., Ltd.
# Section 2 Interdisciplinary Efforts Relating to the Ways of Living and Moving

## (1) Forming a compact city

As described in the foregoing chapter, the living sphere of present-day youths may have been made smaller than before as more of them choose to live downtown or in areas close to the railway stations or their range of ultralightweight vehicles for outing has narrowed. Renovating a community to reflect these trends in the way youths live would be important, in which administrative services are accessible more efficiently by taking advantage of the stock of urban infrastructures developed so far. The goal is to form a compact city, in which the local residents have ready access to medical and welfare facilities.

commercial facilities and other urban conveniences by means of public transportation facilities, without too much resort to their cars, because they are conveniently located in relation to where they live. Furthermore, walkways and bicycle tracks need to be developed, made barrier-free and so on in an integrated manner to secure the convenience and safety of moving by walking on foot, on bicycles and so on (Graphic 212).

## ① Concentration of urban facilities

When a compact city takes shape, it should enable all of us to go to enjoy the benefits of the services prerequisite to our day-to-day living, such as medical, welfare and commercial facilities, and administrative services by means of public transportation, or without too much dependence on our cars. Particularly, child-raising families will have easier access to their workplaces, childcare support facilities and so on, as they are conveniently located in relation to their dwellings, which could lead to better compatibility between work and childcare. For this reason, the development of cooperative houses, public utility facilities, etc. in central urban areas should be pursued by leveraging the central urban area cooperative housing project, a Downtown Housing Renovation Fund and the like. The new or parallel construction of medical, nursing-care and childcare facilities and the like should also be supported in the mean time to facilitate the rehabilitation of housing developments, reconstruction of public rental housings, the formation of hub railway stations and son on (Graphic 213).

Source) (Public corporation) Urban Renewal Association of Japan

## ② Enhanced convenience of public transportation facilities

The area in which urban facilities are concentrated and the area in which public transportation services are provided are two opposed sides of the same coin and are inexplicably linked to each other, such that it would be effective to have the public transportation services provided in line with the direction of the concentration of the urban facilities. For this reason, the inauguration of new bus lines and modifications to existing bus lines, the development of LRT and other transport systems and so on should be coordinated with the concept of community renovation to pursue the convenience
of the public transportation facilities.

While railways are extensively used particularly in metropolitan areas as a means of transport for commuters to office and school, the development of connecting lines and mutually through connections based on existing urban railway networks is being promoted to resolve the inconvenience of transferring from one line to another and to add to the users' further convenience. Other ongoing efforts include the development of underground rapid networks to help ease congestion while commuting to office and school and the passenger traffic line implementation of freight transport railways to support commuters in the areas along the railway lines (Graphic 214).

Source) MLIT

Column

## Driving Bus Usage with a Trigger - A Scheme in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture

Kanazawa City mediates between Kanazawa University and a bus operator (Hokuriku Railroad Co., Ltd.) to encourage students to ride buses run by Hokuriku Railroad to commute to and from the college. Effective since fiscal 2011, the scheme aims at securing the convenience of school busing for students and other people and at encouraging their bus usage. According to this program, the bus operator issues Triggered Test Commuter Passes offering a special discount of 100 yen per ride for passengers taking its

Source) Kanazawa University
buses in a 170- or 200-yen fare zone, with the understanding that, if the issue count for a given year should fall short of its target level, the issue of Triggered Test Commuter Passes would be discontinued to revert to the regular student commuter pass fare plan. The scheme is expected to enhance and activate the ultra-lightweight vehicles of uses in and around the target area as it allows them to make a number of moves with a single pass.

Since commuter pass sales for fiscal 2011 stood at 3,001 passes, 149 above its target, the program is carried into fiscal 2012.

## ③ Promoting the introduction of micro mobilities

Micro mobilities, with a passenger capacity of one or two, are expected to provide a new package of transport functions, such as daily shopping and sending and picking up children, for all generations of people, because they are smaller and more agile than automobiles and which are a convenient means of local transport (Graphic 215).

In January 1, 2013, an accreditation system for micro mobilities started to enable them to run on roads. Some safety regulations for road vehicles (such as seat anchorages) were eased, but subject to certain conditions, such as not running on expressways or like roads, running only in those places that are properly equipped to ensure traffic safety, out of primary consideration for safety assurance. A system that subsidizes the implementation of business projects relating to the preliminary or trial

Graphic 215

An Example of a Micro Mobility

Source) MLIT

introduction of micro mobilities integrated with the community renovation and other programs being pursued in the initiative of local governments or the like has been inaugurated. More efforts to promote the introduction of ultralightweight vehicles will continue while promoting a public recognition of the vehicles through the creation, etc. of best practices.

In March 2013, micro mobilities were loaned to general families in the child-raising generation in the Tama Garden City area in Yokohama city for a certain period of time in a survey to monitor changes these mobilities may bring into their day-to-day lives.

## ④ Assurance of traffic safety along school routes

For child-raising families, the safety of the roads in and around their dwellings is an essential element of childcare (Graphic 147). Efforts are being pursued to keep children safe and secure as they walk along school routes, by renovating the sidewalks, paving the road shoulders in color, setting up guard fences and the like on the basis of the results, etc. of

Graphic 216

Renovating a Sidewalk

Source) MLIT

Graphic 217

Setting Up a Guard Fence

Source) MLIT

emergency joint checkups conducted in collaboration with schools, the parents, police and more (Graphic 216, 217).
## ⑤ Improvement of the bicycle usage environment

Bicycles, now in elevating demand amid growing consciousness of health and the environment, play an important role as a common means of transport in our day-to-day living, for example, youths using bicycles to commute to office and school and child-raising families sending and picking up their kids. A survey conducted among youths asked if they used bicycles or not and, if they did, for what purposes. Three out of every four responded that they used bicycles and 23.3% of them used bicycles for commuting to office and school, when compared with 40.2% for shopping (Graphic 218).

While bicycle usage progresses, the expansion of bicycle running spaces, such as bicycle tracks and lanes, that are separated from automobiles

Source) MLIT "Public Awareness Survey"

and pedestrians remains negligible as a whole. Moreover, the passage of bicycles in driveways is seen impeded by stopped or parked cars. Hence, taking measures in both terms of hardware and software to create a bicycle usage environment that allows bicycles to run with safety and comfort while ensuring enhanced pedestrian safety has become an urgent issue.

In the circumstances, steps have been taken to develop and maintain area-specific bicycle network plans, enforce thorough adherence to traffic rules and so on pursuant to guidelines that have been compiled jointly with the National Police Agency (published in November 2012) (Graphic 219).

## Graphic 219 Examples of forms of Road Maintenance and Improvement

Bicycle road

Bicycle passage space, which is structurally separated by some object, such as a curb line.

Source) MLIT

Bicycle lane

Vehicular lane dedicated to riding bicycles, specified by traffic regulations. Bicycles and automobiles are separated visually.

Mixed driveway

Bicycles and automobiles are mixed in driveways. Bicycle passage positions are expressly marked, with road shoulders being colored, strip-shaped road markings, pictograms, etc. being used to alert automobile drivers.
## ⑨ Promoting barrier-free transportation

In the Public Awareness Survey, a greater proportion of youths in their 20s and 30s than people in other age groups cited “No allowance is made for pregnant women and people with infants to move on walkways, at railway stations and elsewhere” as an item of living in their living area district in which they live district in which balancing child-raising with work is thought hard to attain (Graphic 220).

Efforts to make transportation barrier-free are in progress to enable all generations of people to move through town safely and comfortably, including the development of wider walkways, elimination of steps from the walkways, introduction of low-floored buses and installation of station elevators. Buildings or like facilities that are used by people with infants, Further, the installation of multi-purpose restrooms, nursing spaces, etc. is being promoted in buildings or like facilities that are used by people with infants (Graphic 221, 222, 223).

## Graphic 220 Area of living in which balancing work and child-raising with each other is thought hard to attain

Source) MLIT "Public Awareness Survey"

Graphic 221 Status of Barrier-Free Transportation

Passenger facilities (5,000 or more users nationwide)	Passenger facilities (3,000 or more users nationwide)
Strategic roadways (nationwide)	Buildings (nationwide)
Low-floored buses (three major metropolitan areas)	Low-floored buses (regional areas)

(Notes) 1. Strategic roadways: Among those roadways that connect stations, government and public office facilities, hospitals and the like with each other and those that are specified by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the ratio of the number of strategic roadways that have been made barrier-free to the total count.

2. Buildings: Among the total number of stocks of the specific buildings having a floor space of 2000 square meters, the ratio of number of buildings that have been made barrier-free to the total count.

Source) MLIT

3. Passenger facilities: Among the passenger facilities, namely, railway stations, bus terminals, passenger ship terminals and plane passenger terminals, that have 5,000 or more users on the daily average, the ratio of those passenger facilities that have been made barrier-free (steps removed) to the total count. ( $ ^{*} $ Amendments to the basic guidelines in the Transportation Barrie-Free Law have shifted its target to passenger facilities that have 3,000 or more users starting from fiscal 2011.)

Graphic 222

## Furthering Development of an Elevator and a Ready Accessible Bus Stop in a Station Square

Source) MLIT

Graphic 223

An Example of Restroom Amenities

Conscious of People with Children

Source) MLIT
## (2) Securing and maintaining transportation in rural regions

People are seen to have more resort to automobiles to move in rural regions than in urban regions, but the gap in the sphere of living activity could widen between those who have access to automobiles and those who do not, such as children if public transportation should recess. Because railways and buses play a key role in rural regions as a means of transport to and from office, school and elsewhere, it is important to secure and maintain such vital transport, but bus operators find it increasingly difficult to make both ends meet on a self-support accounting principle amid, in particular, a declining number of users in an increasingly underpopulated area (Graphic 224).

Under the circumstances, The Program for Ensuring, Maintenance and Improvement of Local Public Transportation Systems has been implemented to support local bus routes and the like subject to deliberation with local parties concerned.

(Notes) 1. Operators maintaining a fleet of 30 or more vehicles, except for freeway buses and routine sightseeing buses.

2. “Metropolitan areas (three largest metropolitan areas)” represent aggregates from the Chiba, Busou (Tokyo Santama District, Saitama Prefecture and Kanagawa Prefecture), Keihin (Tokyo Special Wards, Mitaka City, Musashino City, Chofu City, Komae City, Yokohama City and Kawasaki City), Tokai (Aichi Prefecture, Mie Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture), Keihanshin (Osaka Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture (area adjoining Osaka Prefecture that covers Kyoto City) and Hyogo Prefecture (area adjoining Osaka Prefecture that covers Kobe City and Akashi City)) blocks.

Source) MLIT

## Case Study

## Securing a Means of Going to School in Hinohara Village, Tokyo

In Hinohara Village, Tokyo, demand buses “Yamabiko” operate in public transportation-poor areas to support the daily lives of elementary school pupils and junior and senior high school students. Route buses that run on highways cover key lines, while demand buses undertake branch lines.

Source) Hinohara Village

* The convenience of transferring between a route bus and a demand bus is assured to reflect local residents' opinions.
As a result of these efforts, the population increased by about 12,000 from 2005, when Tsukuba Expressed launched, to 2012, with the most dominant age group changing from 60 to 64 years old to 35 to 39 years old.

In 2011, the city formulated the “Nagareyama City Sales Plan” to delineate the direction in the implementation of the promotional activities aimed at enhancing its branded image and compiled a menu of sample implementations of the activities. The City Sales Plan is committed to the goal of expanding the nonresident population of Nagareyama from about 200,000 in fiscal 2011 over a five-year period to about 1,000,000 by fiscal 2015 with a view to boosting its residential population.

PR ads

Source) Nagareyama City

Station-Front Pickup Nursery Stations

Nagareyama Otaka-no-Mori Station opened in 2007

Minami-Nagareyama Station opened in 2008

Pickup Nursery Stations are a system of interconnection of pickup nursery stations and specified nursery schools in town to bus children to and from the stations with both safety and confidence.

## Column

## Efforts Designed to Promote Youth Settlement

## ① Ama-cho, Shimane Prefecture

Located in Nakano-shima Island among the Oki Islands in the Japan Sea some 60 km off the coast of Shimane Peninsula in the Japan Sea, Ama-cho (housing 2,323 at the end of December 2012) pursues an active policy of promoting the settlement of new residents moving into the town in the so-called I-turn $ ^{Note 1} $ since fiscal 2004 in the present context of shrinking population resulting in rapid paces of depopulation and falling birthrates. It hosts a Website and maintains a settlement department at its Tourist Association to answer inquiries and requests for inspection, offering residence to suit the family makeup and other conditions of the would-be settlers. In one ongoing effort, Ama-cho takes impetus from a general social capital improvement grant, etc. to build and remodel houses so as to give would-be settlers a hands-on experience with what it is like to live in the island and also renovate dwellings to promote settlement. A total of 97 houses were developed to encourage settlement from fiscal 2004 to fiscal 2012, with 361 new residents moving into the town in an I-turn, at a settlement ratio of 56%.

Note 2 Of the new residents moving into the town in an I-turn, 102 in their 20s were the largest in number, followed by 89 in their 30s. Youths in their 20s to 30s account for more than half of the total number of settlers. Partly under the influence of the settlement ratio of the settlers making the I-turn in their 20s, the population of people in their 30s has been increasingly steadily since fiscal 2003,

Note 1 To move into a locality different from one's hometown (particularly, from an urban region into countryside and settle there).

Note 2 The ratio of the number of settlers who moved into the island in the I-turn and who still live there to the total number of settlers in the same age group.
while the population of people in their 20s, once on the decrease to attend college or seek employment outside the island, has virtually moved sideways, suggesting that the scheme of housing construction and improvement geared at the specific conditions of youths, etc. may have yielded a certain settlement effect.

Settlement promotion house (3 rooms with living-dining room plus kitchen)

Source) Ama-cho

Source) Ama-cho

## ② Nishimera Village, Miyagi Prefecture

Nishimera Village (housing a population of 1,260 n March 2013), Miyagi Prefecture maintains settlement houses for singles who are 18 years of age or more but less than 40 years of age to promote the settlement of youths in underpopulated areas. Refurbished in 1996 and 1999, a total of 16 youth settlement houses are now available. Occupants up to the end of January 2013 totaled 80, and youths who moved into settlement houses to get acquainted with and marry to local residents counted 21 (17 couples) at the end of December 2012. By providing an opportunity for living and matchmaking for youth, these settlement houses have successfully promoted the settlement of youths.

Apartment house A

Construction time: 1996

Area per apartment: 47.85 m²

Source) Nishimera Village

Apartment house B

Construction time: 1999

Area per apartment: 34.86 m²
## ③ Implementation of the “Youth ★ Class” program

Youths get into touch with a world previously unknown to them as they travel and, by so doing, broaden their field of vision to further their zest for living. In an effort to motivate and encourage youths to “hit the road,” a “Youth ★ Class” session was conducted for high-school students in February 2013 to impart the significance and joy of travel to them. The class was conducted to reflect the value of youths who tend to take particular heed of what their predecessors have to say when they decide to set out on a tour. Featuring Ms Haruka Itoh as a guest instructor who has won supporting companies to afford an around-the-word trip for no personal spending. The “Youth ★ Class” program will be carried out while mediating between the schools seeking to receive the class and the instructors.