Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� August, 2003

The Second Ceremony of Certification of Plan for Special Zones for Structural Reform Friday, August 29, 2003 Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi attended the second Ceremony of Certification of Plan for Special Zones for Structural Reform held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. Fifty seven proposals were certified for this plan and certificates were granted on April 21, 2003 in the first round of the process. In this second round, 47 proposals were newly certified and Prime Minister Koizumi handed certificates to the institutions that submitted their proposals. An example of special zones which were certified are Tomiai-machi, Kumamoto Prefecture's "Tomiai-machi Special Zone for Unified Primary and Lower Secondary School Education," in which it adopts the 4-3-2 system of unified education at primary and lower secondary school to improve the basic subjects and establish unique subjects such as international studies and lifestyle creation studies. Others include; Hakodate City, Hokkaido's "Special Zone for Marine Frontier Science and Technology Research," which seeks to create an international fishery and marine city by making use of the special characteristics of the region where industries and research institutions related to fishery and marine products are clustered together, and; Kawai-mura and Miyagawa-mura, Gifu Prefecture's "Special Zone for Kawai-mura and Miyagawa-mura Demand Oriented Pony Car System Charged Transportation," in which local volunteers provide transportation service in the area without public transportation. Prime Minister Koizumi said, in the opening greeting, "The revival of the economy and society of Japan will be achieved with the strength of local bodies and the private sector, and will need the challenges without fear of failure. The Koizumi Cabinet intends to give its fullest support to such challenges by the local bodies and the private sector." He also emphasized his intention to vigorously revitalize regions in conjunction with promoting the realization of Japan as a country built on tourism, promoting urban redevelopment and giving a more concrete shape to the reform of the trinity. A third round of application for certification for special zones is scheduled to start from October 1.