Miyagi Governor Murai proposes deregulation in 8 areas

In a Sunday meeting of the Cabinet Recovery Commission on 29 May, Miyagi Prefecture Governor Yoshihiro Murai proposed an "East Japan Recovery Zone." The proposal calls for a 10-year period of tax breaks and national support in eight areas including town and city building, agriculture and seafood industries, and medicine.



Governor Murai proposal also included reducing landing fees at Sendai Airport, support for consolidating Tohoku manufacturing and tax breaks for companies damaged by the disaster and for companies locating into Tohoku. Besides the already controversial introduction of corporations into fish farming, Governor Murai called for local governments to set up organizations for promoting larger scale farming on damaged farmland and for the national government to buy up farmland that subsided during the quake.

The proposal also calls for conditional deregulation of land use, recruiting doctors and systems for sharing medical information in order to promote migration of residences to higher ground.

In discussions, commission members pointed out that there are separate legal structures for fishing and port harbors, urban land, farmland, parks, and other types and land and that procedures would need to be unified in order to carry out Governor Murai's proposal.


Source:

Kahoku Online Network, 2011 May 30, http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2011/05/20110530t11008.htm (accessed 2011 May 30).