Regulations on port services should be gradually simplified, according to a recommendation made Thursday by an advisory panel to the transport minister.

The regulations have long been criticized as overly complex by domestic and overseas operators.

According to the Council for Transport Policy, deregulatory steps should be implemented in several stages, starting with Tokyo and moving on through Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and four other major ports.

The proposed move, which would expose the well-sheltered stevedoring industry to competition for the first time, is aimed at halting the decline of Japanese ports, which have been losing cargo-handling volume to other Asian ports, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

Specifically, the panel recommended the Transport Ministry automatically license newcomers as long as they fulfill specific criteria.

Under the current system, new entries to the stevedoring market are allowed to enter only when their presence will not affect the balance of supply and demand for services, thereby effectively protecting already established firms.

The panel also called for a notification system in which service providers would simply tell the government when they change prices, instead of waiting for the government to approve each change, as is required under the current system.

Meanwhile, the panel urged the government to set up a mechanism to prevent the entry of unlawful firms and reinforce measures to counter excessive dumping.

The panel suggested the related laws be revised during the ordinary Diet session slated for next January so that deregulation can be implemented in 2000.

However, the panel failed to address a firm direction for deregulating ports besides the nine major ones

Out of about 1,000 stevedoring firms, close to 500 operate in nine ports that handle about 95 percent of the country's container cargo, according to ministry officials.

The country's port practices once developed into a harsh dispute between Japan and the United States over inefficiency and high costs, eventually leading to a $100,000 per ship sanction on the nation's three major carriers imposed by the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission.