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Japanese Smart Communities as Industrial Policy Chapter j 21 435

FIGURE 21.5 National resilience as an umbrella plan. Adapted from Japan Cabinet Secretariat,
n.d. Building National Resilience. http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/kokudo_kyoujinka/en/e01_panf.
pdf,p.9.

Japan’s NRP serves as an “umbrella plan.” The figure shows that the NRP has
de jure administrative authority over other national plans, including energy,
environmental, and spatial plans. The NRP appears to be far more authoritative
and inclusive than comparable planning initiatives among the OECD
countries.
The NRP is based on the National Resilience Law passed by the Japanese
Diet (parliament) on December 4, 2013. National resilience itself is under the
authority of a State Minister, a new position announced during December 26,
2012, inauguration of the first cabinet of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Prime Minister Abe Shinz o. The NRP wasthen workedupintoaplan by the
Cabinet Secretariat, advised by the National Resilience (Disaster Prevention
and Reduction) Deliberation Committee(NRDC). TheNRDCfirstmet on
March 5, 2013, and continues its deliberations as of this writing. Its 14-
person membership is drawn primarily from the top ranks of Japan’s aca-
demic, government, and business communities. Japan’s top energy policy
advisor, and its strongest advocate of smart communities, Kashiwagi Takao,
advises on energy. Other members, including board-level executives from
Toyota and NTT, make recommendations on aging, primary industries, local
communities, local administration, risk communication, industrial structure,
the environment, disaster prevention, finance, national lands, and information
services.