After 2011, a decentralisation policy delegated the power to create a land-use plan without needing approval from the central government.
The law increased tax revenue and boosted farm productivity by issuing the title deeds to buy and sell land freely.
[1] The first modern Japanese land law, the Tokyo City Improvement Ordinance ('shiku kaisei'), was enacted in 1888, but had been in preparation since 1876.
It targeted infrastructure development including major streets and water works to prevent epidemics in Tokyo.
[2] Because of the need of development outside of Tokyo due to rapid industrialization and urbanization, there was demand from other large cities and from the architectural profession around 1917 to institutionalize a planning system for the whole nation.
[3] Economic miracle in Japan from 1950s filled the major metropolitan areas with material prosperity such as high-rise office buildings, sprawl of suburban devepment, heavy industrial plants, highway systems, Bullet Train lines, new towns, and golf courses.
Land prices soared but an environment was deteriorated, traffic congestion, and failure of trunk road system with urban expansion.
It works in concurrence with other land-use laws to regulate land use in Japan, setting standards for items such as the structure of city plans, and city master planning projects and activities, promoting balance developments of national lands in which contributes to public welfare.
[6] It introduces, the City Planning Area (CPA) concept, designation of areas to discourage developments, restrictive permission of developments, the partial delegation of planning powers to prefectural and municipal governments, procedures for citizen participation.
The person in charge to designate the CPA is prefectural governors, after a consultation with municipal mayors and deliberation councils.
[8] Proposes of the City Planning Area are firstly, to designate the Area Division, secondly, to be available for the development permissions, thirdly, to apply the group rule stipulated for the relationship between buildings and cities in the Building Standard Law.
[11] Zoning and development is legal anywhere between three areas, but in reality, the majority occurs in the UPA where the process is easiest.
[18] District Plans are detailed neighborhood-scale planning, that aimed at accommodating or promoting high rise residences, urban redevelopment, fire and noise prevention, and implementation of floor-to-area ratios (FARs) and transferable development right (TDR) systems.
[19] City Planning Projects are allowed only in the UPA in general except the Promotion Area Zones.
To solve these problem, it has fundamental principles, firstly, the public welfare is above all considerations, secondly, there must be a planning for natural resource preservation, thirdly, healthy and cultural living environments must be protected, fourthly, there must be planning for balanced development of land use.
The governor has the power to issue a document to prohibit a highly speculative transaction with this law.
However, local governments do not have legal power to stop any transactions, but there is a public announment which can deterrence further speculative.
[24] Area (Article 22) in the Natural Environment Conservation Law, the Prefectural Natural Environment Conservation Area (Article 22) by prefectural ordinance After the Decentralisation in Japan started, in 2011, the BLP does not need to be approved by the Prime Minister anymore, it changed from 'approval' to 'consult with' the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism instead.