Silviase/jgov_v1.4_full_ann huggingface dataset:
## (i) Establishing Japan Infrastructure Management Council (tentative name)

The MLIT has determined that Japan Infrastructure Management Council (tentative name) shall be established in FY 2016 as a platform to allow industrial, academic, and governmental parties to collectively engage in full-scale efforts in order to disseminate a maintenance mindset and cultivate and stimulate the maintenance industry (Figure 3-2-16).

At a meeting held at the end of 2015 where companies and organizations interested in the maintenance of infrastructure could exchange opinions, technology was shared with officials from other industrial sectors, new business models were investigated, and various opinions

calling for the establishment of an awards program and other such measures were exchanged. Accordingly, we would like to see the discovery of new private-sector technologies and the entry of new participants from a broad range of industrial sectors promoted through the establishment by the National Council of a framework for the provision of support to accompany initiatives undertaken by companies and organizations.

## (ii) Harnessing a system for registering private-sector qualifications for fostering and securing maintenance engineers

By evaluation existing private qualifications and harnessing a system for registering qualifications that satisfy technical standards required for maintenance, we can promote the cultivation and utilization of private-sector engineers and ensure the quality of inspections, diagnostic actions, and other such operations. Registered engineers were allocated for approximately seventy percent of inspections and diagnostic actions involved in early-order placements made in FY 2015 (Figure 3-2-17).
(iii) Promoting the spread of and providing education on good practices

In order to promote the spread of and provide education on the philosophy of infrastructure maintenance, the MLIT called for the submission of case examples of ideas and good practices supporting the maintenance and renewal of infrastructure and held panel exhibitions on good practices for the maintenance of infrastructure for approximately one month beginning in December 2015. This information has been posted to an information portal site Note $ ^{72} $ (Figure 3-2-18). Visitors to this information portal site can check the status of infrastructure inspections in different areas, including roads, rivers, and ports and harbors, as well as apprise themselves of measures and initiatives concerning the strategic maintenance and renewal of infrastructure.

(iv) Studies concerning the adoption of Comprehensive Work Consignment to Private-sector to access the technology and expertise that can be offered by private-sector companies

In order to carry out efficient maintenance by harnessing the technology, expertise, and economies of scale that private-sector companies can offer, specific studies are being conducted in collaboration with local governments on the means by which functions for maintaining multiple areas or facilities across multiple years can be comprehensively outsourced to the private sector while utilizing local construction firms.

Through such initiatives, we will promote the use of multi-year contracting and Comprehensive Work Consignment Private-Sector outsourcing with respect to maintenance and renewal.

Questions on awareness with respect to the balance between the development of new infrastructure and the maintenance and renewal of infrastructure were asked in a monitoring survey administered to members of the general public in February 2016 by the MLIT. Approximately forty-five percent of respondents indicated that we should prioritize maintenance and renewal work, such that the way in which the public perceives these issues also suggests that prospects for the maintenance industry are quite bright (Figure 3-2-19).
Source) MLIT

## ☑ Adopting fifteen new standards

In order to comprehensively adopt ICT for all construction site processes, ranging from surveys and measurements to design work, construction, checks, maintenance, and renewal functions, new standards will need to be introduced to enable the integration and use of three-dimensional data. To this end, the MLIT developed fifteen new standards and adopted them in April 2016 for projects under its direct control (Figure 3-2-21). By comprehensively adopting ICT-based construction machinery and robot technologies for compliance with these standards, significant improvements in productivity are expected.

Figure 3-2-21

Examples of key new standards to be adopted from FY 2016
## Column

i-Construction Committee visited the Komatsu IoT Center and inspected demonstrations of surveying by drones and construction by ICT construction equipment. (Figure 3-2-22). Since 2015, Komatsu Ltd. has

# Reform in construction work sites in Japan

Figure 3-2-22 i-Construction-related on-the-spot investigation (Komatsu IoT Center)

Survey conducted with a drone Construction using ICT-based construction machinery

Source) MLIT

provided services where it surveys the construction sites through pictures taken by drones, creates 3D models, calculates the soil volume, and utilizes the results in construction management. The company is trying to reform domestic construction worksites that suffer from a chronic shortage of workers by providing surveys by drones and other services. By combining its ICT construction equipment, the company is promoting more efficient construction work.

The service using drones can survey several million points while flying a drone for ten and several minutes, and complete detailed 3D data of the construction site in a single day. Currently, the ICT equipment has been introduced into 1,000 sites in Japan.

## (Adopting overall optimization (such as by standardizing specifications governing concrete work))

Cast-in-place concrete is noted for making planned construction work difficult depending on weather conditions. For projects involving bridges and other such structures for which high-elevation work is required, technicians working on these projects also need to have a certain level of skills given that work is being performed in a working environment that carries risks and given that work can be complex due to differences in how retaining molds are placed and reinforcing steel bars are assembled from one worksite to the next. On the other hand, even in cases in which pre-cast products are used $ {^{Note76}} $ , opportunities for using same-sized products in large quantities are limited, such that it is difficult to effectively obtain economies of scale. The environment is also one that does not easily facilitate cost reductions since there is no choice but to carry out processes from the receipt of orders to production.

In this connection, we will carry out studies with a view to adopting overall optimization Note 77 and popularizing underlying technologies and introducing supply-chain management according to the attributes of cast-in-place concrete and pre-cast concrete Note 78 (Figure 3-2-23) in order to improve the overall productivity of concrete work. With respect to cast-in-place concrete, we will also carry out studies on popularizing technologies with a view to improving methods of coupling and fixing reinforcing steel bars as they relate to the streamlining of such on-site work as that which involves the assembly of reinforcing steel bars and the pouring of concrete.
Example of an initiative to enhance the productivity of concrete works

## (Leveling construction timings and maintaining fair construction periods)

Since public works projects are essentially carried out according to yearly budgets, the volume of such projects being carried out between April and June is low while the busy season for such projects extends from autumn to the end of the fiscal year [end of March], such that the volume of such projects at this time of year tends to be high. If we look at the volume of projects in terms of output on a monthly basis, the project volume during the busy season was nearly 1.8 times as great as the project volume during the slack season in FY 2014 (Figure 3-2-24).

In order to efficiently use limited amounts of human resources, construction periods should ideally be standardized to

stabilize project volumes throughout the year. Since this measure can be accommodated by changing the way in which the work of ordering parties is carried out and does not require new investments, it is a measure that should be proactively
undertaken by ordering parties. Standardization can also be expected to restore the health of the management of Japanese construction companies, improve job conditions for workers, and help promote ownership of equipment and machinery by Japanese construction companies thanks to higher operating rates.

Standardization entails the systematic placement of orders after the standardization of construction periods and the end of construction periods is taken into account through the appropriate use of early order placement and the assumption of debts where required after the period required for each construction project is secured. It also helps to eliminate the busy season at the end of each fiscal year by discouraging the practice of forcefully finishing jobs before the end of the fiscal year and by appropriately utilizing the system of carrying forward debts where necessary (Figure 3-2-25).

It is also important to note that initiatives for standardization should be engaged in collectively by not just the national government but by all ordering parties, including local governments that account for approximately seventy percent of all public works. For this purpose, the national government, local governments, and other ordering parties shall collaborate in promoting standardization through local councils of purchasers (whose members include the national government, prefectural governments, and all municipalities and which are set up in each

prefecture). It has been decided that the national government shall, where required, submit requests to local governments to promote standardization in accordance with the Act for Promoting Proper Tendering and Contracting for Public Works and other relevant laws.

## (2) Promoting “Japan’s Robot Strategy”

The government formulated “Japan’s Robot Strategy” (finalized by the Japan Economic Revitalization Taskforce on February 10, 2015) in accordance with “the Japan Revitalization Strategy”. This strategy aims to achieve a new Industrial Revolution driven by robots for an advanced country dealing with a dwindling birthrate and an aging population. Against the backdrop of a shortage of leaders, the progression of superannuation, and the frequent occurrence of disasters, an action plan (outlining goals and priority implementation areas) for the years until 2020 has been indicated. Goals indicated for the construction sector include the bold introduction of computerized construction technology, an example of robot

technology, to construction sites and the promotion of improvements in productivity and laborsaving efforts based on the notion that all processes, including front-end and back-end processes, form a system. To attain these goals, the promotion of integrated measures through (i) the development of technology, (ii) the adoption of technology in the field, and (iii) the
development of a market environment is required.

Japan manufactures and uses more robots than any other country in the world; the nation boasts of shipping industrial robots worth JPY 340 billion each year and of having approximately 300,000 operating units in the country. It is said that Japanese models of hydraulic shovels found on construction sites account for at least eighty percent of the global market while ICT construction equipment embedded with three-dimensional design data-based machine-controlling technology constitutes construction technology that is—along with unmanned construction processes and computerized construction processes—the pride of Japan.

The new robot strategy sets forth three areas—general construction, infrastructure maintenance, and disaster responses—as priority areas for the advancement of robots (Figure 3-2-26).

The MLIT will, in collaboration with leading experts in various fields in which contributions will be made to bring about technological innovations, promote the realization of the aforementioned i-Construction in the area of construction production and the development and introduction of next-generation infrastructure robots for societal infrastructure in the areas of infrastructure maintenance and disaster responses.

(Development and Introduction of Robots for the Next Generation Social Infrastructure)

While the cognitive power of robots is presently still far from being complete when compared to that of humans, it is expected that the day will come when they can replace humans performing inspection work.

The MLIT is promoting the development and adoption of next-generation robots for societal infrastructure in order to effectively and efficiently conduct inspections of massive infrastructural elements and rapidly and precisely survey disaster sites that are difficult for humans to access and carry out emergency recovery work. Over a two-year period between FY 2014 and FY 2015, highly practical robots were invited to conduct field investigations and evaluations in order to verify practicality in terms of introduction on a trial basis (Figure 3-2-27). This information, including video clips of the status of validation, has been released through our disclosure site (Figure 3-2-28) $ ^{Note\ 79} $ . Since FY 2016, the introduction of robots on a trial basis based on the results of field investigations has been progressively pursued. There are plans to properly arrange usage steps and other matters through trial runs performed with actual on-site operations.
## Column

## Efforts toward practical use of automatic driving (automatic cruising)

In order to realize the safest road traffic society (in the world), various measures have been taken to put automatic driving technology to practical use in Japan. If the technology is fully realized, it will bring about various social advantages, such as reduction in traffic accidents, alleviation of traffic congestion, responses to the aging society, relief of overpopulation in urban cities, and reduction in environmental loads.

As efforts toward next-generation vehicles in Japan, the Cabinet Office and other government offices associated with automobiles established the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), which states that the realization and dissemination of automated driving systems are to be gradually promoted from the late 2010s, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has also participated in the program. In addition, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the MLIT held a review meeting on the automatic cruise business in February 2015, began consideration, and put together future action policies in a report in March 2016, for the purpose of enhancing Japan's international competitiveness in the automatic driving technology and acquiring the international standards beneficial to Japan.

Automobile manufacturers in Japan, aiming to market cars that can automatically cruise on expressways from 2018 to 2020, has been conducting driving tests on public roads.

In advanced nations where society is aging, including Japan, how the elderly and persons with disabilities, who cannot drive cars, obtain means of transportation for their lives is an issue. The automated cars are expected to be one solution to this issue. Creation of an environment for safe ingress, egress, and driving will be necessary.

In the rural areas, the provision of the last one-mile of mobility suited to local needs can improve the quality of life in those areas (Figure 3-2-29).

Figure 3-2-29 Illustration of last-mile autonomous cruising

Source) Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
# Initiatives towards Restoration and Reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake

## Section 1 Current Status and Measures Towards Restoration and Reconstruction

Accelerating restoration from the Great East Japan Earthquake is one of the top priorities of the MLIT. Although the number of refugees has decreased from the initial 470 thousand individuals at the time of the earthquake, around 171 thousand people $ {}^{Note 1} $ currently lead lives in evacuation in approximately 1,138 municipalities $ {}^{Note 2} $ throughout 47 prefectures. Five years on from the earthquake, a new phase entitled Reconstruction and Revitalization Period started from April 2016. The MLIT is working to further expedite the restoration and reconstruction processes, making an all-out effort so that people from the affected areas can actually experience the progress in restoration.

Attentive to voices from areas affected by disaster, the MLIT will work as a united body to swiftly respond to on-site needs of the Regional Development Bureau, the District Transport Bureau, the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the Japan Coast Guard. In order to achieve this goal, in January 2013, we split the parliamentary secretaries into groups of three, and assigned a prefecture to each group as an Affected Area Assistance Team within the MLIT to respond sensitively to requests from each area affected by disaster.

The emergency restorations of basic infrastructures such as roads and ports are mostly complete, and full-scale reconstruction work advances steadily as well. We will continue to faithfully execute the work according to the infrastructure progress schedule. Also, the rebuilding of homes and urban development towards restoration are steadily making progress in line with the Residence Recovery Construction Timetable, and we will continue to provide support to the affected areas with care. We will also work to secure local public transportation and promote tourism in the affected areas.

Status of Progress Towards Full-scale Restoration and Reconstruction of Public Infrastructures (as of the end of March 2016)

Note 1 170,841 people as of March 10, 2016, based on study by Reconstruction Agency

Note 2 As of March 10, 2016, based on study by Reconstruction Agency
# Realizing a Tourism Nation and Building a Beautiful Nation

# Chapter 3

Section 1

Trends in Tourism

## 1 Significance of a Tourism Nation

Tourism is an industrial segment of vital importance to Japan, for it helps the nation maintain regional vitalities to keep up with its social development by capturing global demands, as from rapidly advancing Asian nations, to expand nonresident population vising from both at home and abroad in a depopulating and aging society with falling birthrates, and also consolidate its position in an international community by promoting deeper global mutual understanding through two-way exchanges with the nations abroad.

## Tourism Now

## (1) Trends in the nation's tourism

The number of domestic overnight travels for sightseeing made in 2015 averaged 2.45 per capita (against 2.06 a year earlier) and the average number of trips per capita was 1.45 times (against 1.26 a year earlier). Spending on the domestic overnight travels, including homecoming and business trips, amounted to about 16.5 trillion yen (against 14.4 trillion yen a year earlier), and the number of overnight stays, the number of trips taken and the amount of spending all increased from their year earlier levels.

The number of Japanese overseas travelers in 2015 decreased 4.1% (about 700,000 persons) from the previous year to about 16.22 million with their overseas travel consumption in the same year falling from the previous year (about 4.3 trillion yen) to about 3.9 trillion yen.

## (2) Trends in foreigners touring Japan

The number of foreign visitors in 2015 increased to 19.74 million (up 47.1% from the previous year), with the number of increase in the past three years exceeding 10 million. By nationality and region, China accounted for about 4.99 million (up 107.3% from the previous year), followed by South Korea with about 4.00 million (up 45.3% from the previous year) and Taiwan with about 3.68 million (up 29.9% from the previous year). By market, the following 19 markets registered their annual record highs: South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

(Note) Definite values for 2014 and before and preliminary value for 2015.

Source) Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO)
With increases in the number of foreign visitors, they spent an all-time high of 3,477.1 billion yen in 2015, an advance of 71.5% (1,449.3 billion yen) from 2014.

## (3) Trends in the tourism industry

## (i) Travel trade

In FY 2015, Japan’s 50 major travel agencies had a total transaction value of 6,636.3 billion yen (against 103.2% a year earlier), broken down into approximately 2,018.6 billion yen (91.6%) for overseas trips, approximately 4,443.5 billion yen (108.3%) and approximately 174.2 billion yen (144%) for inbound foreigner tours.

## (ii) Guestroom occupancy ratios at accommodation facilities (hotels and Japanese inns)

The guestroom occupancy ratios (preliminary figures) at the hotels and Japanese inns in 2015 were 79.9% for city hotels (against 77.3% a year earlier), 57.3% (54.0%) for resort hotels, 75.1% (72.1%) for business hotels and 37.8% (35.2%) for Japanese inns.

## Section 2

## Approaches to Forging Tourism Nation

At the Ministerial Council on the Promotion of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country hosted by the prime minister, 2015 Action Program Toward the Realization of Japan as a Tourism-Oriented Country was decided in June 2015, and united efforts of the government in cooperation with the private sector were made toward the realization of a tourism nation.

## 1 Strategic Initiatives Toward a New Inbound Tourism Era

Starting from 2015, JNTO (Japan National Tourist Organization) became the implementing entity of the Visit Japan Campaign, which was previously carried out by the Japan Tourism Agency, and is conducting effective visit Japan promotions, leveraging its local networks overseas. It disseminated attractions of regions in the countryside to allure inbound foreign tourists concentrated in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and other cities in the so-called golden route. Also, in order to create demand for inbound tourism throughout the year, JNTO communicated the charms of four seasons such as winter snow, in addition to spring cherry blossoms and autumn leaves.

The MLIT worked to relax visa requirements in coordination with relevant ministries. Multiple-entry visas were introduced for Brazilians on June 15, 2015 and for Mongolians on August 10 of the same year, followed by the significant relaxation of requirements for multiple-entry visas for Indians on January 11, 2016 and the extension of validity of multiple-entry visas for Vietnamese and Indians (e.g., for business, cultural and intellectual persons) on February 15, 2016 witch was the Japan’s first case of introducing a multiple-entry visa with a maximum validly of 10 years.

Furthermore, in order to tap the long-stay demand of wealthy foreigners, the “longer stays program for sightseeing” was introduced on June 23, 2015.