Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Chikage Ogi said Tuesday that she will set up a private advisory panel to discuss controversial national expressway network projects, asking it to hammer out an interim report by the end of November.
The panel is to hold its first meeting Friday.
The ministry earlier argued that the advisory panel should draw its conclusions after holding sessions over one year, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi fast-tracked the panel, giving it to the end of November to report its findings.
The panel will consist of five members: Ken Moroi, adviser to Taiheiyo Cement Corp.; Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota Motor Corp.; Waseda University professor Masahiro Sugiyama; Shigeru Morichi, professor at the University of Tokyo; and Yuzo Takagi, board member at the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Moroi, who served as chairman of an advisory panel for Japan Public Highway Corp., is expected to head the new government panel.
In its final report last year, the highway panel concluded that the public corporation will be able to finish repaying debts over 50 years under the current 9,342-km expressway construction plan.