The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) is starting an information counter for local municipalities to support them in their attempts to apply more diverse ways of procurement. During the past years MLIT has undertaken action to introduce more diverse ways of public procurement, as local governments have found it difficult to arrange sustainable management of their social capital and existing infrastructure and adequately deal with prevention of disasters.  These trends are seen as a threat to the liveability of local communities.  Also declining populations in local areas have also made it difficult for municipalities to secure sufficient expertise to deal with these challenges and prepare their public procurement tenders properly.

In response to these challenges, MLIT has stimulated the introduction of alternative procurement methods such as multiple year contracts, comprehensive service tenders and joint tenders.  Also, Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) is promoted by MLIT to alleviate the problems municipalities face.  Besides these, the Construction Management (CM) Method where supervision of construction is consigned to private companies and the introduction of Public Private Partnership (PPP) constructions are seen as alternative ways to ensure sustainable maintenance of public facilities in the regions.

In a country where lowest price was the decisive factor in procurement for a long time, the diversification of tender procedures might offer new opportunities for foreign companies as well. 

More information in Japanese on MLIT’s information counter and introduction of diversified procurement methods can be found here.