An Approach to a 'City and Rural Planning Act. '

Abstract

Rural Settlement Areas Act was enacted on 27 May, 1987, by the Japanese Government. This act is controlled by both the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. It is an epock-making from the viewpoint of the planning administration. And it has a special meaning with the fact that it gives planning registration control power to some parts of non planning control areas. However, this act ironically creates various new subjects related to the upper act such as City Planning Act and Agriculture Promotion Act. This paper discusses such a new subject related to the Rural Settlement Areas Act, pointing out the new way to approach to the City and Rural Planning Act in the future. The Rural Settlement Areas Act has the following three problematic points: 1. How should we decide the framework of Rural Settlement Areas Act? Unfortunately, the Japanese local government does not have a solid land use plan such as land use plan in West Germany (Flichennutzungsplan) . Therefore, it is necessary to make a new land use plan in order to adjust the framework of Rural Settlement Areas Development. 2. How should we execute land consolidation project in the framework of rural settlement areas development? According to the Rural Settlement Areas Act, we should make two plans separately, settlement site plan and settlement agricultural promotion plan, and we execute each project of land consolidation, namely land adjustment project by the management of the Ministry of Construction and land improvement project by the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. However, from the point of views by farmers, one project should be introduced, not two projects. Especially, the basic survey of each lot should be executed with the one project. In this sense, land improvement project would be benefited more than land adjustment project, because, in case of land improvement project, total land ownership could be surveyed. 3. How should we adjust the different logics related to planning controls, land restrictions by settlement site plan and gricultural land conservation agreement? In this chance, we should promote the research to the establishment of “City and Rural Planning Act”.