The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's task force for administrative reform on Mar. 14 announced a set of comprehensive plans to promote deregulation.

The package, which LDP officials said would be indispensable not only to revitalize the nation's economy but also to make Japan a more accessible country, was submitted later in the day to Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama. The top items on the deregulation agenda are those related to the proposed "Big Bang" financial reform plan, which Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has pledged to implement by 2001 to make the nation's financial markets free, fair and global.

The plans include 77 separate suggestions covering 10 areas -- finance and securities, transportation, land and housing, judicial affairs, labor, medicine and welfare, agriculture and fisheries, telecommunication, education and market competition promotion policies. The package should be included in a government plan on deregulation that is scheduled to be compiled by the end of this month, Koko Sato, head of the task force, said. "The deregulation plans we suggested may be considered to be too drastic by some people, but we believe the plans will be indispensable for transforming Japan into a country that is open both domestically and internationally," Sato told reporters.