Overview of the 2026 White Paper on Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism | Chapter 2Infrastructure Investment and New Technology for Productivity

Hard and soft infrastructure supports people’s lives, socioeconomic activities, and disaster prevention over the long term, while concerns exist about declining functionality due to aging. In light of advances in technologies such as AI and automated driving, maintenance and renewal must proceed together with the use of new technologies.

The white paper organizes these efforts as mutually related policy groups: new investment that accelerates growth; measures that attract private investment through safety and security; effective use and reconstruction of existing infrastructure; preventive maintenance; digitalization and automation; and the use of infrastructure for energy security.

In the desired future, the focus is on resolving infrastructure and socioeconomic challenges simultaneously rather than pursuing wide-area transportation and logistics efficiency, maintaining regional transportation, expanding tourism spending, industrial location, disaster prevention, and decarbonization separately.

Developing wide-area railways, high-standard roads, airports, and ports reduces travel times and transportation costs and promotes corporate location, employment, tourism, and interregional exchange. For growth industries such as semiconductors and data centers, integrated development of roads, water and sewerage, electricity, and communications is a prerequisite for location and operation.

Disaster-resilient road networks, double networks, flood-control measures, and seismic retrofitting not only protect lives and property but also contribute to business continuity and supply-chain stability, reducing investment risks and economic damage during disasters. In regional areas, the use of disaster-prevention facilities as hubs for tourism and exchange is also expected to produce benefits.

Eliminating transportation gaps, automated driving, and AI on-demand transportation reduce mobility-related opportunity losses that constrain school attendance, medical visits, employment, consumption, and tourism, helping to ease the burden of providing rides and increase discretionary time. In areas with declining populations in particular, these measures can help maintain essential services and regional economies.

People value safe and secure workplaces, convenient living in rural areas, lives protected from disasters, and smooth mobility. While expectations for automation and advanced technologies are high, concerns also exist about responsibility in the event of accidents, malfunctions, cyberattacks, and privacy, making institutional development, explanation, and the cultivation of social acceptance necessary.

New investment will advance the Linear Chuo Shinkansen, planned Shinkansen lines, high-standard roads, and the enhancement of airport and port functions. The Linear Chuo Shinkansen will connect Tokyo and Osaka, and construction between Shinagawa and Nagoya is underway. The planned Shinkansen network consists of five routes in Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Kyushu Kagoshima, and Kyushu Nagasaki. Its development targets include the Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto–Sapporo section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen, the Tsuruga–Shin-Osaka section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen, and the Shin-Tosu–Takeo-Onsen section of the Kyushu Shinkansen.

At airports and ports, runways, passenger terminals, cargo districts, quays, breakwaters, and reception facilities will be developed in anticipation of inbound tourism, international logistics, and cruise demand. Port development induces private investment and employment in factories, power plants, logistics facilities, and other areas, thereby increasing international competitiveness.

To support growth industries, Kumamoto Prefecture is developing congestion countermeasures, multilane prefectural roads, access roads to the Central Kyushu Crossing Road, and a new sewage treatment plant in conjunction with the entry of semiconductor factories. In Hokkaido, a wide-area network of roads, airports, and ports will be built to support next-generation semiconductors, GX, data centers, space-related industries, and other sectors.

For existing infrastructure, smart interchanges, continuous grade separation, the three-dimensional road system, and green infrastructure will be used to improve access, remove level crossings, enhance urban functions, and harness natural functions within limited space. Measures against aging infrastructure will be based on facility consolidation and reorganization and preventive maintenance, while advancing group management across municipalities and fields.

Digital measures include the road data platform, time-based ETC pricing, pedestrian-flow data, three-dimensional pedestrian-flow data, digital tourism maps, AI on-demand transportation, and COMmmmONS. Data visualization, standardization, and joint use will improve the convenience and sustainability of road management, tourism attraction, and regional transportation.

In automated driving, Level 4 and Level 2++ vehicles, driverless mobility services, automated vessels, and automated-driving trucks will be demonstrated and deployed. In construction, logistics, and shipbuilding, i-Construction 2.0, automated guided vehicles, automated warehouses, construction simulators, AI, and robots will be introduced to reduce labor needs, transfer skills, improve work safety, and enhance quality.

In the energy sector, floating offshore wind power, next-generation solar cells, hydrogen, and dynamic wireless power transfer will be promoted. Through the development of offshore wind projects, installation of solar cells at public facilities and on vehicles, hydrogen reception at ports, and road-based power supply for commercial EVs, decarbonization will be linked with energy security.

The future outlook presents a physical internet, automated logistics roads, fully automated driving, flying cars, physical AI, and a locally produced and locally consumed energy society. Realization will require legal development, demonstration sites, data infrastructure, standardization, public-private collaboration, accumulated knowledge from failures, clearly designated responsibility, safety assessment, and social acceptance.