## (c) Promoting the incorporation of more barrier-free features

## (Comprehensively promoting the incorporation of more barrier-free features)

In order to allow everyone to freely and easily travel from one place to another in urban areas, the ministry proceeds with the incorporation of more barrier-free features in an integrated and comprehensive manner, into railway facilities, hospitals, welfare facilities and other buildings as well as into routes connecting them and in buses and taxis.

The ministry pushes forward the incorporation of more barrier-free features at public transport facilities, including the installation of elevators at railway stations used by more than 5,000 passengers a day and at other stations of regional importance. The ministry also proceeds with the introduction of low-floor buses, and pushes forward the development and popularization of bus and taxi vehicles for everyone, including the elderly and the disabled, and everywhere.

MLIT also pushes forward the incorporation of more barrier-free features into buildings used on a daily basis by the general public, particularly the elderly and the handicapped, including hospitals and welfare facilities.

The ministry also promotes the incorporation of more barrier-free features into roads connecting these facilities and public sector facilities, by making pedestrian space more user-friendly through, for example, improving slopes and eliminating differences in levels on existing sidewalks.

## (Making use of ubiquitous technology)

In order to formulate environments where all pedestrians can obtain information necessary for traveling from one place to another, anytime, anywhere, including the routes most suited to one’s physical ability, information on facilities and shopping and information from easy-to-use services at traffic nodes, the ministry pushes forward the improvement of ubiquitous information technologies.

## (3) Making daily life more comfortable

In order to make use of various regional characteristics and formulate attractive and comfortable living areas, the ministry supports, in a comprehensive manner, the creation of vitality in town areas, the improvement of convenience in rural transport and the autonomous development of regions.

## (a) Development of areas full of vitality and attractiveness

## (Creating vitality in urban areas)

The ministry pushes forward invigoration of core urban districts and rehabilitation of urban areas, through the integration of urban functions in downtowns by making use of projects to rehabilitate people’s daily life and prosperity; through the promotion of people’s settling in city areas by financing projects to improve housing therein; and through support for town development, which private sector bodies and local communities take part in and which makes use of community-based originality and ingenuity through town development subsidies.

In addition, the ministry fundamentally reviews the existing system for urban planning in order to reconstruct the system so that it can adapt to a declining population and global environmental problems in the future.

## (Creating a beautiful and attractive town)

In order to create beautiful and attractive townscapes, the ministry pushes forward support for: the creation of popular riverside spaces combined with town development and for waterside activities, including environmental education; the improvement and functional enhancement of city parks; the removal of utility poles by using a number of techniques, such as using space under eaves and hidden wiring; and the comprehensive creation of historic townscapes making use of historic and cultural heritages in local communities.