d. Enhanced network and mobility to support internal and external interactions

To achieve the three strategic goals of the Hokkaido Comprehensive Development Plan, the MLIT has driven the development of key transport infrastructures, such as high-standard highways, airports and harbors, the reinforcement of logistic network facilities, etc. effectively in collaboration with various entities. The MLIT also carries on active efforts to add to the safety and reliability of winter-time transportation.

### e. Building a safe, secure land

Japan has recently been hit by a chain of major natural disasters, including the Great East Japan Earthquake. Hokkaido, too, has suffered heavy snowfalls, severe snowstorms, landslide disasters and wind and flood damages in FY2014 and posing many issues to be solved to be able to form a safe, secure regional community. Hence, the MLIT has promoted disaster preparedness efforts in conjunction with local governments, residents, etc. to make social infrastructures immune to earthquakes, dispatch TEC-FORCE (Technical Emergency Control Force), take integrated packages of flood control and landslide control measures, build reliable networks of roads, reinforce crisis management systems and so on. In addition, since concerns over aging facilities and their maintenance and management continue to loom, the MILT is also pushing relevant approaches, such as those aimed at creating maintenance cycles.

## Column Realizing a Hydrogen Society in Hokkaido

Hydrogen grabs growing attention for its possible role in transport and community development as a secondary energy that makes effective use of the potentials of the renewable energy sources occurring in abundance in Hokkaido to ensure a stable supply of energy, an issue of keen concern to our entire nation, and help resolve global warming issues.

On November 20, 2014, therefore, a public sympdium titled “Towards Realization of a Hydrogen Society in Hokkaido” was held in Sapporo City under the sponsorship of the Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau and others with a view to sharing thoughts on approaches to realizing a hydrogen society in Hokkaido, with an attendance of about 300.

The symposium featured a speech by Mr. Hiroshi Saeki, professor emeritus at Hokkaido University, and panel discussions among representatives of the industry, academia and government.

The speech emphasized an absolute need for measures to combat global warming in order to build a sustainable society and stated, among other things, that, if fossils can be substituted for by renewable energy sources available in Hokkaido and hydrogen, then the resultant intra-regional flow of money that would otherwise be paid to overseas to purchase fossil fuels could stir the development of regional economies.

The panel discussions were coordinated by Mr. Takemi Chikahisa, professor at Hokkaido University Graduate School with representatives of the enterprises connected with hydrogen, such as Iwatani Gasnetwork Corporation, Toshiba Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation, joining as panelers. The panel discussed the feasibility of commercializing renewable energy-derived hydrogen in Hokkaido, its hopes for creating new industries and employment, the contribution of a supply of renewable energy-derived hydrogen to a sustainable society and so on, and called for continuous approaches to be taken to achieve these goals from long-range perspectives, with expectations placed on the administrative authorities for steering the approaches.

The MLIT is committed to moving ahead with

Status of symposium holding

Source) MLIT