March 31, 2022 Results of Solicitation of Opinions on Draft Partial Revisions to MIC Notice No. 1379 of 2005 (Establishment of Standards for the Number of Type I Public Telephones to be Installed in Each Prefecture pursuant to Article 40-6, Item 2 of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act)

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) solicited opinions on the Draft Partial Revisions to MIC Notice No. 1379 of 2005 (Establishment of Standards for the Number of Type 1 Public Telephones to be Installed in Each Prefecture pursuant to Article 40-6, Item 2 of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act) for the period from Thursday, February 3 through Friday, March 4, 2022. In response to this, three opinions were received. Accordingly, MIC discloses the submitted opinions along with MIC’s views on the opinions.

1. Outline

MIC solicited opinions on the revision of MIC Notice No. 1379 of 2005 in order to revise the criteria relating to grid squares (i.e., cells used for grid square statistics) to serve as the basis of calculation of the number of type 1 public telephones to be installed, while taking into account the Ideal State of Public Telephones in Response to Changes in Socio-economic Environment (report of the Information and Communication Council, July 7, 2021) and the Partial Revisions to the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act (report of the Information and Communications and Posts Administrative Council, February 2, 2022).

2. Results of solicitation of opinions

MIC drafted a partial revision to the MIC Notice No. 1379 of 2005 and solicited opinions for the period from Thursday, February 3, through Friday, March 4, 2022, pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act (Act No. 88 of 1993).
In response to the solicitation of opinions, three opinions were received.

3. Promulgation of Notice

Based on the results of the solicitation of opinions, a partial revision to the Establishment of Standards for the Number of Type 1 Public Telephones to be Installed in Each Prefecture pursuant to Article 40-6, Item 2 of the Regulations for Enforcement of the Telecommunications Business Act (MIC Notice No. 114 of 2022) was promulgated on the date mentioned above. This revision will come into effect from April 1, 2022.