A bill to
revise the Ports and Harbors Law
was passed into law Wednesday to enable the government to invest in the
operators of hub container ports in the Tokyo and Osaka areas with the aim of
boosting their competitiveness.
Having seen
large chunks of Japanese cargo to Europe and North America routed via South
Korea's Busan Port, which has been wholly backed by the South Korean
government, Japanese businesses have been calling on the government to get
involved in running ports in the Tokyo and Osaka bay areas.
The
operators of three ports in the Tokyo region -- Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki --
and those of two ports in the Osaka region -- Osaka and Kobe -- plan to
integrate their management, and the
government will then invest in the new firms.
The
government will promote business investment in
preparing facilities to handle cargo that will contribute to reducing
operational costs and be involved in sales to attract domestic and foreign
freight.
Under the
revised law, the government can also provide non-interest-bearing loans into
projects to introduce warehouses with distributive processing functions near
the major ports and to reinforce the quake-resistance of privately owned
seawalls.
Details of
the government's involvement, including investment ratios, will be discussed
later as Yoichi Masuzoe, governor of the Tokyo metropolitan government which
supervises the Tokyo port, remains cautious about the state's participation.
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