with various entities. The MLIT also carries on active efforts to improve 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 and remains largely open to massive earthquakes, such as those stemming from the Japan and Kuril Trenches, and tsunami, posing a number of tasks that need to be solved before a safe, secure regional community can be formed. Hence, the MLIT has been working on. Infrastructure development including enhancing seismic capacity of infrastructures, adopting integrated packages of flood control and landslide control measures, and building highly reliable networks of roads, reinforcement of the-crisis management systems and local disaster preparedness efforts in conjunction with local governments, residents, etc. At the same time, looming concerns over the maintenance and management of aging facilities step up efforts to get the jobs done effectively and efficiently, including ways to combat aging, make the facilities longer-lived and perform preventive management on them.

## 2 Promoting Distinctive Regions and Cultures

## (1) Promoting the regions neighboring the Northern Territories

The MLIT has driven the implementation of those measures necessary to promote the regions neighboring the Northern Territories in which the desirable growth of a local community has been impeded because of pending territorial issues and to stabilize the living of the local residents in these regions in an integrated manner. More specifically, the MLIT pursues a mix of hardware and software measures necessary to take advantage of the hardware measures to build appealing regional communities in these neighboring regions pursuant to the Seventh Northern Territories Neighboring Regions Promotion Plan (FY2013 to FY2017) commencing from FY2013 as the first year, including the promotion of agricultural and fishery industries, development of transportation systems, implementation of public-works projects designed to preserve the national land, etc. supporting the implementation of software measures with funding from grants for the expenditures for promoting project implementations, such as Northern Territory neighboring region revitalization.

## (2) Promoting the Ainu Culture, etc

The concepts of the tradition and culture of the Ainu, a source of the pride the Ainu people take, is being disseminated pursuant to the “Act on the Promotion of Ainu Culture, and Dissemination and Enlightenment of Knowledge about Ainu Tradition, etc.”

In FY2013, a campaign was launched to help people previously indifferent to Ainu culture to develop greater interest in it by getting the Ainu phrase “i ran karap te” (which means “how are you”) consolidated on the minds of a greater proportion of the general public, including residents of Hokkaido, as a keyword of Hokkaido hospitality, on the basis of a report by the Policy Promotion Workgroup, Council for Ainu Policy Promotion (July 2012) and reviews of the concept of the future promotional

Campaign kickoff ceremony held at New Chitose Airport

Source) MLIT

and enlightenment activities partnering with various entities conducted discussed in FY2012. As part of the campaign, Ainu articles were exhibited at Kushiro Airport, as well as New Chitose Airport, in a quest for further promotion and enhancement.