Policy Issues

Basic Law on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas, income-support payments, rice production quotas, animal health, and plant protection.

Food self-sufficiency ratio targets, strategic food stockpiles, fertilizer security, and buffer against climate-driven crop failures.

Plant Variety Protection and Seed Act, seed sovereignty, farmer seed-saving rights, and overseas-varietal outflow prevention.

Antimonopoly Act enforcement, merger review, cartel fines, and abuse-of-superior-bargaining-position rules.

Food Sanitation Act import inspections, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Act rules for cosmetics, and residue-limit standards.

Patent Act, copyright reform (AI-training fair-use clause), trademark/design law, and IP High Court jurisprudence.

Startup-Five-Year Plan, venture-capital tax incentives, industrial competitiveness reform, and university-tech commercialization.

Data center siting, energy efficiency, regional distribution, power supply for hyperscale.

Defense budget (1-to-2% of GDP ramp), Self-Defense Forces posture, counter-strike capability, and procurement reform. Covers US-Japan alliance updates.

Economic Security Promotion Act, critical-goods supply chain resilience, sensitive technology protection, and cross-border data flows.

Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA) export-license regime, dual-use goods, and semiconductor equipment controls aligned with allies.

FEFTA pre-notification, designated sector expansion, SOE screening.

Security clearance system, counterintelligence legislation, and intelligence-sharing with Five Eyes partners. Covers the Secrecy Act and espionage provisions.

AI-use guidelines for government and business, generative-AI copyright policy, risk-based AI regulation, and international AI coordination.

Critical infrastructure protection, supply chain security, active cyber defense legislation.

APPI amendments, cross-border data transfer, data localization, My Number expansion.

UAS operational rules (Level-4 BVLOS), drone registration, and counter-UAS/air-defense against rogue drones over critical infrastructure.

Online insult and defamation provisions, child online safety, transparency reports, and illegal-content takedown duties for platforms.

Transparency and fairness rules for digital platforms (DPTF Act), app-store policy, and gatekeeper-style competition enforcement.

Semiconductor industrial policy including Rapidus, JASM/TSMC support, 5G-promotion fund, and supply-chain onshoring subsidies.

10-trillion-yen University Fund, graduate-school reform, Moonshot R&D program, and JST/AMED research grant policy.

MEXT curriculum standards, teacher workload and compensation reform, school-DX GIGA School program, and bullying prevention.

Biomass power generation, sustainable feedstock certification, and co-firing with coal. Covers palm oil and wood pellet sourcing concerns.

GX Transition Bonds, the GX-ETS emissions trading scheme, carbon surcharges, and fossil-fuel levy redesign.

Carbon capture, storage, and utilization policy, including the CCS Business Act framework and liability allocation for CO2 injection sites.

Electricity market design including the Capacity Market, Balancing Market, and JEPX spot market. Covers retail competition and unbundling.

Energy-conservation law (Shōene-hō), building and appliance efficiency standards, and industrial efficiency benchmarks.

Battery energy storage systems, stand-alone grid batteries, and behind-the-meter residential/commercial storage incentives.

Geothermal power development, hot-spring operator conflicts, and national park siting rules. Covers NEDO exploration support.

High-voltage grid expansion, inter-regional interconnection, and OCCTO planning. Covers curtailment of renewables and master-plan build-out.

Low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia supply chains, co-firing at thermal power plants, and contract-for-difference support schemes.

LNG procurement, strategic reserves, city-gas liberalization, and pipeline infrastructure. Covers JOGMEC and long-term contracts.

Nuclear reactor restarts, safety regulation (NRA), spent fuel policy, and SMR R&D. Covers Kashiwazaki-Kariwa and decommissioning.

Promotion zone designations, auction system, port infrastructure, supply chain for offshore wind.

Onshore wind siting, environmental assessment, and grid connection. Covers turbine permitting and local ordinance conflicts.

Solar PV deployment, FIT/FIP feed-in tariff regimes, and rooftop/distributed generation incentives. Covers utility-scale plants, PPAs, and siting rules.

Chemical Substances Control Law (Kashin-hō), PFAS restrictions, pesticide regulation, and hazardous-waste handling. Covers REACH alignment.

Circular-economy framework, resource-efficiency targets, plastic recycling, and end-of-life treatment for solar panels and EV batteries.

UNFCCC/COP climate treaties, biodiversity (CBD/Kunming-Montreal), Montreal Protocol HFC amendments, and plastic-treaty negotiations.

AML/CFT regime (犯収法), FATF mutual-evaluation follow-up, customer due diligence, and crypto-travel-rule implementation.

Banking Act amendments, regional-bank consolidation, insurance sector supervision, and non-bank lending regulation.

Corporate Governance Code revisions, stewardship code, board-independence thresholds, and activist-shareholder disclosure rules.

Crypto-asset (shikin kessai) regulation under the Payment Services Act, stablecoin rules, tax treatment, and Web3 policy.

Cashless payments push, QR-code unification (JPQR), bank-held vs non-bank e-money, and BOJ CBDC (digital yen) pilots.

TCFD/ISSB disclosure alignment, sustainability-linked loans, green-bond principles, and transition-finance frameworks.

Digital Agency programs, My Number expansion, government-system cloud migration (gov cloud), and digital-procedure legal framework.

Creation and restructuring of ministries and agencies, diplomatic mission (zaigai kōkan) establishment, and National Personnel Authority reform.

Chihō Sōsei strategy, depopulation-area special measures, regional revitalization subsidies, and relocation incentives.

Electronic health records, My Number-linked insurance cards, telemedicine reimbursement, and software as a medical device (SaMD) approval.

PMDA drug/medical-device review, drug-loss / drug-lag response, orphan-drug incentives, and biosimilar policy.

Genome-editing research rules (CRISPR), embryo research limits, human cloning prohibition, and bioethics-review board governance.

Health insurance reform (kaigo/health), diagnosis-related drug pricing revisions, and MHLW medical-fee schedule (shinryō-hōshū) cycles.

Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, Passport Act, ESTA-style JESTA pre-travel screening, and detention-center reform.

Building Standards Act, construction industry labor reform, earthquake resilience retrofits, and construction-waste recycling.

Urban regeneration special zones, compact-city planning, station-area redevelopment, and condominium (マンション) management reform.

Waterworks consolidation, concession models for municipal water utilities, and sewerage infrastructure renewal.

Civil Code reform, civil procedure digitization, family law (parental authority), and court administration modernization.

Penal Code revisions, Criminal Procedure amendments, traffic-offense reform, and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs).

Specified Skilled Worker (SSW), Technical Intern Training replacement (Ikusei Shūrō), visa categories, and integration policy.

Labor Standards Act revisions, work-style reform (hatarakikata), workers' compensation, and workplace safety regulation.

Road Traffic Act updates for L3/L4 autonomous vehicles, on-demand robo-shuttle deployment, and liability allocation.

Civil Aeronautics Act, airport slot allocation, ANA/JAL oversight, and low-cost carrier policy. Covers runway expansion projects.

Battery and hybrid EV subsidies, charging infrastructure rollout, heavy-duty vehicle decarbonization, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

2024 Problem truck-driver hours cap, last-mile delivery optimization, warehouse automation, and cross-border supply resilience.

Japan Post governance, universal-service mandate, package-delivery competition, and postal savings/insurance oversight.

Railway operators' financial sustainability, local-line preservation vs BRT conversion, bus driver shortage, and ticket pricing reform.

Political Funds Control Act revisions (faction slush funds), online campaigning, and voter-ID / election-system reform.

JGB issuance policy, special-deficit bond (akaji kokusai) authorizations, GX bonds, and debt-servicing cost management.

Individual income tax reform including bracket adjustments, deductions, fixed-amount cuts, and tax-treaty / double-taxation agreements.

Local Tax Act, local allocation tax (chihō kōfuzei), municipal-bond framework, and hometown-tax (furusato nōzei) reform.

General-account and supplementary budgets, fiscal consolidation targets, and Treasury (MOF) operations including gold-bullion reserves.

Basic Act on Disaster Management, Noto earthquake recovery, tsunami/typhoon preparedness, and national resilience (国土強靭化) budget.

Kodomo Kosodate Agency programs, childcare and daycare expansion, parental-leave reform, and child-abuse prevention.

Public pension system reform, long-term care insurance (kaigo-hoken), elderly housing, and intergenerational-equity debates.

Livelihood protection (seikatsu-hogo), disability services under the Integrated Support Act, and accessibility (barrier-free) mandates.

Broadcast Act amendments, NHK governance and receiving-fee policy, internet-simulcast rules, and local-broadcaster sustainability.

Mobile carrier competition (docomo/KDDI/SoftBank/Rakuten), SIM-lock removal, roaming charges, and MVNO fairness rules.

Radio spectrum allocation, 5G buildout, 6G research roadmap, and auction-based licensing debates.

NTT Law amendments, universal-communication service, submarine-cable strategy, and fixed-line consolidation.

Integrated Resort (IR) licensing, gambling-addiction countermeasures, public gaming (keiba/keirin) modernization, and online betting rules.

Travel Agency Act, OTA platform regulation, booking practices, travel industry oversight.

Visit Japan strategy, overtourism, tourism tax, accommodation regulations, IR/casino, DMO.

Inbound FDI promotion, Regulatory Reform Council agenda, sandbox schemes, and Special Zone designations.

FTA/EPA negotiations (TPP/RCEP/IPEF), WTO disputes, bilateral investment treaties, customs tariffs, and foreign-exchange policy.