On Feb. 15 the government designated the whole of Kyushu as the Kyushu Asian Tourism Island Comprehensive Special Zone and Nagasaki Prefecture as the Nagasaki Marine and Environmental Industry Core Zone as part of a program to create special regional zones with tax breaks and other incentives. The former aims to attract foreign tourists and increase port calls by foreign cruise liners, while the latter is designed to promote the marine and environmental industries through the construction of energy efficient ships and the installation of windmills.
The prefectures of Kyushu, Fukuoka City and the Kyushu Tourism Promotion Organization filed a joint application for the Kyushu Asian Tourism Island Comprehensive Special Zone. The application includes plans to create a simplified tour guide interpreter system to alleviate the dearth of Chinese and Korean-speaking tour guides, relax laws to allow exchange students to act as interpreters and simplify taxes and customs procedures for international visitors on cruise ships. The cities of Nagasaki, Sasebo and Saikai filed the application for the Nagasaki Marine and Environmental Industry Core Zone. They plan to extend the period that imported goods can be stored in shipyards without tariffs and enact special measures to increase foreign trainee intake. The government approved five applications from 11 regions this time, bringing the number of comprehensive special zones to 44 nationwide. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun, Feb. 16
