Powerful Leadership of National Government in Port Policy

Countries worldwide are reforming their port operation systems. For instance, Canada established the "Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative" and is implementing logistics policies, including railway/road modes under the powerful leadership of the national government and through efforts of both the public and private sectors. In addition, the national governments of Denmark and Sweden established Copenhagen Malmö Port, which integrally manages the formally competing cross-border Port of Copenhagen and Port of Malmö. By contrast, in Japanese port operation systems, the management and operation of all ports are fully under local public authorities, and the involvement of the national government is limited to allocation of port development budgets. The Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 paralyzed the functions of local public authorities, and it became apparent that port management/operation by these local authorities was limited. The authors analyzed the cases of port operation system reform conducted and verified the significance of leadership provided by the national government. As a result, a huge gap of international competitiveness and disaster response capability between ports in Canada and Denmark/Sweden was found, where national government policy affects the operational system significantly, and those in Japan, where all port operation is left to local public authorities and the government only exercises its leadership in the distribution of port development budgets. From the aspects of international competitiveness and enhancement of the disaster response capability, port operation requires powerful leadership of the national government.