Japan‘s Council for Regulatory Reform has focused intensively on reforms of regulations that hinder achievement of important policies of the Cabinet, such as growth strategy and regional revitalization.
In their new report, “Towards a Japan Full of Diversity and Vitality“, they seek to address the following goals of regulatory reform:
- To promote innovation in response to changes in economic structures;
- To ensure that new products/services are available to people;
- To realize an inclusive society in which women actively participate and all people including the young and the elderly are involved;
- To foster smooth mobility of labor;
- To remove regulations that hamper regional revitalization.
In the third term, the top priority of the Council for Regulatory Reform was given to regulatory reforms for providing options of working in diverse and flexible styles for people, especially women, the young, and the elderly. From this viewpoint the Council for Regulatory Reform not only directly received opinions from various layers of citizens through the Hotline on Regulatory Reform, but also invited a number of stakeholders for discussions.
Based on these opinions and discussions, the Council for Regulatory Reform expressed its “Opinion about “regulatory reforms for realizing diverse working styles,” and proposed policy agendas in the future. Furthermore, from the concept of “local first,” the Council for Regulatory Reform received requests for reforms at local economy levels through the Hotline on Regulatory Reform, had wide discussions about regulations presided by local governments in addition to those by the central government and, heard voices from experts engaged in regional revitalization.
Based on these, the Council for Regulatory Reform adopted four perspectives in regional revitalization: reproduction and use of idle capacity, use of roads in versatile ways, reform of regulations mainly presided by local governments, and other reforms and compiled reform items.
See abstract of report “Toward a Japan Full of Diversity and Vitality” (PDF).