The government said Wednesday it will no longer promote resort development and will urge 41 prefectural governments to reassess or abolish plans to build unneeded recreational facilities, government officials said.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry, and two other ministries plan to re-evaluate 42 projects in the 41 prefectures, including Hokkaido and Okinawa, that were planned during the bubble economy in line with the 1987 resort law.
According to the officials, only 20 percent of the planned resort facilities have been built, largely due to mistaken estimates for demand made during the 1980s.
With the move, prefectural governments will be required to conduct more stringent assessments before building resort facilities, they said.
They said residents and nonprofit organizations must also be allowed to take part in discussions with local authorities to ensure that landscapes will not be damaged by building such facilities.
The land ministry in January 2003 and the public management ministry in April said the basic plan on building resort facilities must be completely re-evaluated.
According to the land ministry's evaluations at the time, the number of people using the resort facilities already built was 44 percent of the original estimate, and the number of people employed was 22 percent.