July 20, 2020 Results of Appeal for Opinions on Draft Ministerial Ordinance and Relevant Notices for Partial Revision of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act and Report from the Radio Regulatory Council

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) made an appeal for opinions from Thursday, March 19 through Friday, April 17, 2020, for the partial revision of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act (Radio Regulatory Commission Rules No. 14 of 1950) and relevant notices for the upgrading of the fifth-generation mobile communications system (5G) and broadband wireless access system (BWA). As a result, 117 opinions were submitted. Accordingly, MIC has decided to open the submitted opinions along with MIC’s views on the opinions.
With consideration of the results of the appeal for opinions, MIC submitted an inquiry about the drafted revision of the ministerial ordinance to the Radio Regulatory Council (Chaired by Susumu Yoshida, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University). Then, MIC received a report today stating its approval as drafted. MIC will promptly make the institutional development of relevant regulations based on the result of the appeal for opinions and the report from the Radio Regulatory Council.

1．Background and outline of revision

The fourth-generation mobile communications system (4G) and BWA use frequencies lower than those assigned in April 2019 to 5G, and there has been an increasing need to use these frequencies for 5G and BWA compatible with 5G to build broad 5G areas for securing mobility.
Against this background, the Information and Communications Council started deliberating on 5G from December 2018 to formulate technical conditions for introducing 5G to the current frequency bands of 4G, along with technical conditions for introducing BWA systems compatible with 5G. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications received a partial report on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, from the Information and Communications Council.
With consideration of the report, MIC made the appeal for opinions from Saturday, May 30 through Monday, June 29, 2020. This appeal was on the ministerial ordinance to revise part of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act and the notices to make required institutional development that will enable the introduction of the current frequency bands of 4G to 5G, along with the introduction of BWA systems compatible with 5G.

2. Report from the Radio Regulatory Council

With consideration of the results of the appeal for opinions, MIC submitted the inquiry to the Radio Regulatory Council based on the Radio Act (Act No. 131 of 1950) about matters related to the drafted ministerial ordinance for the partial revision of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act. Then, MIC received a report today stating its approval as drafted.

3．Future plans

With consideration of the report from the Radio Regulatory Council and the result of the appeal for opinions, MIC will promptly revise the ministerial ordinance, etc.