Request for Deregulation

"Request for Deregulation" (outline)

Purpose of the Proposal

This proposal is intended to summarize our requests on deregulation and easing of application procedures etc., in preparation for the final revisions of the current "Deregulation Action Program (DAP)", which is planned in late March 1997. Keidanren is also determined to lobby with Government, major parties and Administrative Reform Committee to realize our requests.

Features of the Proposal

1. Comprehensive requests based on a large questionnaire survey among all the member companies and organizations of Keidanren (1,167 companies/organizations).

2. Suggestions concerning the analysis/disclosure of the economic impacts of deregulation, to improve procedures for the enactment of government orders and the like, and to establish new standards to ease application burdens, etc.

3. Emphasis on five areas: agriculture, transportation, finance/securities /insurance, medicine/welfare, and education.

4. Requests for the easing of application burdens are made independently in addition to the requests for deregulations. This is to achieve an overall streamlining of the regulation administration.

Structure of the proposal

The proposal is composed of three parts; (1) the basic philosophy, (2) requests for deregulations, and (3) requests for easing of application burdens, etc. Each part is summarized as follows:

Basic Philosophy

Deregulation

After establishing the role of deregulations as a linchpin for economic structural reform, the following items are requested:
1. In the planned revisions of late March 1997, which will be the final revision of the current DAP, the contents of the plan are to be revised and strengthened drastically. After the revision, a new promotion system is to be established for fiscal year 1998 and beyond, based upon the analysis/evaluation of the current promotion system.

2. In order to promote the utilization of deregulation measures by private business owners, information concerning new business opportunities introduced as a result of deregulation, and the economic impacts of deregulation such as expected market size and successful examples, as well as the details of deregulation measures, will be provided domestically and overseas.

3. The improvement of procedures for the enactment of government orders, etc., which are the bases for actual regulation administration (for example, retainment of the right of examination by the Diet, participation by concerned parties in the enactment and establishment processes, and the establishment of rights to submit opinions to the proposal).

The Easing of Application Burdens.

We think the amount of paper work and the economic burden of applicants will be reduced substantially by simplifying and unifying application forms and items to be filled out and by reducing the use of seals (Hanko). We also think this will contribute to promote paperless/electric application system effectively.
1. Procedures for deregulation and for easing the application burden to be noted separately in the DAP. New standards to establish procedures for the easing of application burdens (for example, to unify forms and attachments for applications, etc., to simplify change notification procedures, and to reduce use of seals etc.,) shall be promoted in full force.

2. Using the planned "Information Disclosure Law" (tentative) as a starting point, procedural regulations concerning information-gathering activities by the administrative institutions shall be improved (for example, recipients of an investigation shall be notified beforehand of the purpose of the investigation, the reason for the investigation, whether it is optional or compulsory, and how investigation findings will be disclosed. If an investigation is conducted on the basis of non-disclosure, verification of the basis shall be guaranteed after the investigation.

Requests for Deregulation

A total of 699 items covering 17 areas, of which 411 are items announced this time. In particular, the items which should be given priority are as follows:

Agriculture

• Deregulation in the application of the Food Staple Law (liberalization of regulations for production and distribution of rice.)
• Abolition of the agricultural product price stabilization policy (wheat, beer barley, raw milk/milk products, sugar beets/sugar cane, starch, pork etc.)
• Permission of farmland ownership by joint-stock corporations

Transportation

• Simplification of the vehicle safety inspection.
• Deregulation concerning freight train charges.
• Abolition of authorized cartels of the domestic shipping business.
• Liberalization of entries in the domestic airline.

Finance/Securities/Insurance

• Review of service area regulations (Review of business range of trust/securities subsidiaries, and establishment of holding company system in financial service area).
• Easing of asset allocation rules related to corporate pension funds.
• Liberalization of license system for securities firms.
• Deregulation of stock brokerage commission.
• Drastic deregulation of the foreign exchange control system.

Medicine/Welfare

• Legalize operation of hospitals, etc., by enterprises.
• Easing of restriction on advertisement by hospitals.
• Deregulations of qualifications for chairmen of medical corporations.

Education

• Flexible curriculum coordination.
• Flexible selection of educational materials including textbooks
• Legalization of education programs by telecommunications system.

Land/Housing

• Easing of reporting system on land transaction.
• Revision of the regulation of transaction of land (establishment of post-transaction notification requirement of land, etc.)
• Deregulation to promote importation of houses (promotion of mutual approval and international harmonization of standards/references of building materials, review of the approval system for higher use of new materials and construction methods, easing of structural standards on building materials for wooden houses.)
• Review of regulations for plant-sites.

Information and Telecommunication

• Review of business classification (Type I, Type II).
• Deregulation of rates and contractual conditions, and the introduction of price cap system to NTT.

Employment/Labor

• Liberalization of private employment exchange services, and liberalization of dispatching services.
• Reevaluation of protective provisions applying to women.
• Expansion of the scope of application of arbitrary work.

Economic Laws/Accounting

• Improvement of commercial code concerning mergers and making provisions for the division of corporations
• Liberalization of acquisition/holding of companies own stock
• Reevaluation of the lease land and lease-housing law (establishment of fixed term lease rights for houses).

Competition Policies

• Liberalization of pure holding companies.
• Abolition of stock-holding regulations for large scale enterprises.
• Easing and simplification of regulations of pre-merger notification before the merger.

Easing of Application Burdens, Etc.

We have listed total of 187 items on 16 areas, of which 152 are newly listed items.

Number of request items in the "Request for Deregulation"