Comprehensive Strategy for the Rebirth of Japan ~ Exploring the frontiers and building a "Country of Co-creation" 2012.

"Comprehensive Strategy for the Rebirth of Japan" is a national multi sectoral strategy that lays down a road map for reviving Japan as a nation more attractive and vibrant than before the Great East Japan Earthquake. The goal it aims to reach is to build a society which regards the numerous difficulties facing Japan as frontiers of opportunity for Japan, and which shows model solutions for the world by courageously exploring these frontiers.
To realize more sustainable and productive agriculture, forestry and fisheries the government will focus on promoting the program for the Direct Payment of Income Support and the formulation of the "Farmers and Farmland Plan" in villages and regions; paying newcomer benefits to young people entering agriculture, and encouraging agricultural corporations to offer jobs on farms with a target of settling about 20,000 young people in agriculture every year; concentrating farmlands in management entities and promoting transition of farmlands to larger blocks and making farmlands multipurpose; expanding demand for rice for use as flour, rice for feed, home-grown wheat, home-grown soy beans and other farm produce; taking measures against deserted arable land, taking measures for correcting the disadvantages of hilly and mountainous farmland, and supporting cooperative activities in villages for maintenance and management of agricultural land and water; repairing and renew core water facilities for agriculture, etc.
Another objective of this strategy is the conversion of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries into growth industries or ‘a sixth industry’ and increasing distribution efficiency. To this end, efforts will focus on supporting business operators certified under the Sixth Industrialization Act, and implementing the comprehensive measures for creating the sixth industry; reinforcing supply systems from consumer viewpoint, such as keeping freshness, and promoting production of horticultural crop in plant factories with an eye toward exporting such crop; expanding the efforts and sophisticate the contents of GAP (Good Agricultural Practice), and expanding introduction of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points); promoting the food traceability program; promoting environment-friendly farming activities such as organic farming and compost application; increasing registration of agricultural chemicals that can be used for pest control for regional specialty crops; supporting use of superior resources, revolutionary development of new varieties, and commercialization in the fields of materials and drugs; systematizing skilled farmers’ know-how (implicit knowledge), and conducting demonstration for practical application of agri-informatics (AI) systems; achieving early introduction of a system for protecting geographical indications, and facilitating acquisition of overseas genetic resources (preparing a plan, etc.); attracting demand related to the habit of skipping breakfast and demand related to health and long-term care; promoting efforts to use "food" in various domains including health care, education, and tourism, toward regional revitalization and revival of farming villages; developing national movement toward inscribing Traditional Dietary Cultures of the Japanese as an intangible cultural heritage; developing and establishing technology for using biomass, and promoting creation of industries and communities using local biomass; etc.
Strengthening measures for disaster prevention and mitigation is another objective of this strategy including enhancement of earthquake resistance, and promoting technological development through large-scale empirical studies making use of cutting-edge technology in disaster-affected areas, developing flood-control facilities, and intangible measures such as strengthening the warning and evaluation systems, etc.
The "Comprehensive Strategy for the Rebirth of Japan" also specifies a assessment mechanism and aims to establish a full-fledged PDCA (plan-do-check-action) cycle in the basic policy management. The Program of Works for Reform toward the Rebirth of Japan specifies the targets to be achieved by 2020 through implementation of the concrete measures. The Council on National Strategy and Policy, the lead party in the implementation efforts, will conduct hearings and gather data from the ministries on the status of implementation of the strategy and evaluate its progress. The evaluation results will be reflected in subsequent measures, such as the revision of policy actions for achieving the targets. In this process, those policy actions that fail to produce sufficient results for several years will be drastically reviewed (including reduction or abolishment of their budget).