July 31, 2023 Results of Solicitation for Opinions on Draft Ministerial Ordinance for Partial Revision of Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act, etc., and Report from the Radio Regulatory Council Institutional development for the introduction of narrowband LTE-Advanced systems

For the introduction of narrowband LTE-Advanced systems, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) solicited opinions on the draft ministerial ordinance and pertinent conditions for partial amendments to the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act (Radio Regulatory Commission Rules No. 14 of 1950) and pertinent conditions from Thursday, June 22 through Friday, July 21, 2023, and received six opinions. Accordingly, MIC opens the submitted opinions to the public, along with MIC’s views on the opinions.
Based on the results of the solicitation for opinions, MIC sent an inquiry to the Radio Regulatory Council (chaired by SASASE Iwao, Professor Emeritus at Keio University) on the said draft ministerial ordinance, and today MIC received a report to the effect that it is appropriate to adopt the draft as originally proposed.
MIC will promptly develop the relevant provisions based on the results of the solicitation for opinions and the report from the Radio Regulatory Council.

1. Background and Overview of Amendments

The Information and Communications Council (chaired by ENDO Nobuhiro, Executive Advisor of NEC Corporation) has been studying technical requirements for narrowband LTE-Advanced systems since November 2022 to meet the growing demand for mobile phone frequencies. MIC received a partial report from the Information and Communications Council in June 2023 on the technical requirements for narrowband LTE-Advanced systems, which are part of the technical requirements for new-generation mobile communications systems.
In light of this, MIC solicited opinions from Thursday, June 22 through Friday, July 21, 2023, on the draft ministerial ordinance to partially amend the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act and pertinent conditions for introducing narrowband LTE-Advanced systems.

2. Report from the Radio Regulatory Council

Based on the results of the solicitation for opinions, MIC sent the inquiry to the Radio Regulatory Council today on the inquiry items stipulated in Article 99-11, Paragraph 1, Items 1 and 2 of the Radio Act (Act No. 131 of 1950) regarding the draft ministerial ordinance, etc. to partially amend the Regulations for Enforcement of the Radio Act. Then, MIC today received a report stating that the drafted amendments are appropriate.

3. Future plans

MIC will promptly amend the ministerial ordinance, etc., based on the report from the Radio Regulatory Council and the results of the solicitation for opinions.

• *
  The published materials are in Japanese only.