During FY2014, with the National Strategic Special Zones Act coming into effect, the space requirement standards for areas within the National Strategic Special Zones were relaxed, making it possible to set up outdoor cafés and billboard businesses in these zones, similar to the areas within the urban renewal development plan.

In regards to the river spaces, to create new possibilities for the use of waterside areas in Japan that have lost the liveliness of past eras, we are working to increase the society’s interest in its waterside spaces, and to garner participation from various positions. Since FY2011, it has become possible for private businesses to set up things like events by the river and outdoor cafés within the areas specified by the river administrators. For example, places like the Horikawa River in Nagoya, Dotonbori River in Osaka, and Kyobashi River in Hiroshima have created more bustle and activity by the river by opening outdoor cafés and holding special events (Figure 2-1-27).

Figure 2-1-27

Source) MLIT

Horikawa River, Nagoya

Examples of Creating Activity and Bustle by Using Riverside Spaces

Dotonbori River, Osaka

Kyobashi River, Hiroshima

## (2) Converting the Purpose of Infrastructures with Low Levels of Usage

Due to the changes in the socioeconomic conditions resulting from the shrinking population, there are several infrastructures that have seen a decrease in usage, and it is estimated that this situation will only increase in the future. For such infrastructures, we need to find ways of converting their purposes in order to find effective uses. Some typical examples of such changes would be reconstructing housing complexes to set up medical and welfare centers, or converting elementary schools that were shut down into elderly welfare facilities. However, in this section we will introduce examples of the usage of infrastructures like bridges and railway facilities being converted.

## (Use as a Tourist Facility)

## ☑ Amarube Viaduct’s Lookout Facility, ‘Station in the Sky’

The old Amarube iron bridge in Kami Town of Mitaka District, Hyogo Prefecture, was once the East's premier steel trestle bridge, built back in 1912, and has long been admired as Japan's leading iron bridge. However, a train fall accident in 1986 triggered the undertaking of switching to a concrete bridge, and in 2010 the new concrete bridge called the Amarube Viaduct was completed.

Meanwhile, in order to pass on the wonder of the civil engineering technology and the history of this iron bridge – the old Amarube iron bridge on which the San'in Main Line had run for nearly 100 years – to future generations, it was decided that a part of Amarube iron bridge (3 piers, 3 span) would be renovated into a lookout station. In May 2013, the Amarube iron bridge "Station in the Sky" was opened as a lookout facility (Figure 2-1-28).

Figure 2-1-28

Amarube Iron Bridge Lookout Facility, 'Station in the Sky'

Source) Kami Town website

The approach section and the apical part of the facility were left with the original rails and railroad ties and the restoration was designed to keep the railroad looking as close to how it was as much as possible, to restore the appearance