The Nakasone political power modeled on the policy of Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the United States, and promoted deregulation, privatization and the administrative reform. To revitalize Tokyo when “The Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan” was formulated in 1987, spatial policy such as “Control the Metropolitan Areas and Promote Local Areas” until that time was changed. The Nakasone policy has changed gradually into the measure that expanded the investment in public works from the fiscal reconstruction in the background of the asset-inflated economy. In the post Nakasone political power after the burst of the economic bubble, it was in the state of straying to alternate retrenched finance and measures to boost the economy. It was “Basic Plan for the Public Investment” in 1990 to influence the investment in the public works expansion. The Hashimoto political power enacted the Fiscal Structure Reform Law in 1997. But the austerity would be stopped before long so that the business, which just began to recover, worsened. That political power changed measures again, boost the economy and tax reduction were executed. “Grand Design for the 21st Century” (21GD) as the fifth comprehensive national development plan was formulated in 1998 under that circumstances. The numerical target was almost none at all in the 21GD though that plan had aimed at different one from the former development plans. Therefore it came to plan the long & large bridge project easily because of no brake of the fiscal framework. Moreover, the concept “National Axis Zone” is not supported. However, it was appreciable to have induced trends of today's urban renewal, consolidation of municipalities, etc. The environment that surrounds spatial planning like the movement of restructuring of government ministries and agencies and decentralization, etc. changed greatly after 21GD. The symbols of a conventional spatial policy like New Industrial City Construction Law, Special Measures Law of Industrial Development, etc. were abolished as an epoch event. On the other hand, new legislation of an individual field like the Infrastructure Maintenance Emphasis Plan Law and the Urban Renewal Law, etc. continues. These series of trends are new currents that deny the sense of comprehensiveness, character of a long term, and the feature of regionalism that the spatial planning has possessed up to now. The problem is how to reform the spatial planning system from now on.

JEL classification : N95, O21, R53, R58