# Strengthening International Expansion and International Contributions

## Section 1 Promoting the Export of Infrastructure Systems

## 1 General Direction of Government Policy

The international demand for infrastructure, particularly for emerging countries, is enormous and due to rapid urbanization and economic growth, this market is expected to grow even more. For this reason, as part of Japan's growth strategy and international expansion, Japan's strengths regarding infrastructure systems will be utilized to meet the vast infrastructure demands of the world.

On the other hand, international competition for project orders is fierce and for Japanese companies to get orders, the public and private sectors need to work closely to create an environment that enables Japanese companies to receive orders.

Therefore, the government established the “Infrastructure Strategy Economic Cooperation Meeting” in March 2013 and compiled the “Infrastructure System Export Strategy” based on the discussions of policies that the government should undertake by relevant ministers including the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. This strategy was incorporated into the “Japan Revitalization Strategy” in June 14 of the same year to ensure it was implemented without delay.

The Infrastructure System Export Strategy aims to achieve 30 trillion yen (currently 10 trillion yen) in infrastructure-related orders to Japanese companies by 2020. The pillars of this policy in the context of this strategy are: 1) promote public and private sector cooperation to strengthen the global competitiveness of companies, 2) support the discovery and incubation of companies, local governments, and human resources that will lead the overseas expansion of infrastructure, 3) acquire international standards utilizing advanced technology, knowledge, etc., 4) support entry into new frontier fields, 5) promote the securing of stable and inexpensive resources.

## 2 The Concept of Infrastructure System Exports in the Field of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

In accordance with the “Infrastructure System Export Strategy”, MLIT will promote infrastructure system exports in the field of land, infrastructure, transport, and tourism but in order for Japanese companies to successfully compete with rival countries and win bids, it is necessary to capitalize on Japan’s strengths to create safe and highly reliable systems that integrate hardware and software as well as flexibly accommodate the needs of the target country.

For this, we aim to participate in the upstream stage (conceptual stage) of the project such as through top sales or broadcasting information at international conferences as well as pushing for Japanese technology and standards to be adopted as international standards or local standards in the target country to foster an environment that facilitates participation from Japanese companies. Also, in addition to responding to issues in the field of transport and urban infrastructure such as large initial financial investments and long development periods as well as demand risks, we will also broadly support Japanese company bids and business development by assisting companies encountering difficulties in international expansion and other matters for successful resolutions.