3.In Australia, when urban waterfront development projects are conceived, it is usually the norm to create a special purpose vehicle to master plan, deliver and then often have ongoin management responsibilities.
4.Import/Export Weighting: Australia's export of raw matcrials has led to the development of sole purpose ports in a number of remote areas.
These are significant facilities but are totally different from those developed in the major urban centres where most transport is now containerised.
5.Climatic Conditions: While it does snow in parts of Australia, no waterfront/port areas experience the extreme winter cold of areas of Japan and Australia generally is free of the other severe natural conditions (earthquakes, typhoons) experienced in Japan A natural assumption is that there is a considerable cost differentiation in waterfront projects in the two countries created by additional construction Costs for the Japan projects.
2.Japanese Projects
The writer's visit was for the period of 24 November to 8 December 1996.
The visit covered the following areas:
・Tokyo Port, Tokyo Teleport Town, Tokyo Bay, Ministry of Transport;
・Port of Yokohama, Minato Mirai 21;
・Port of Kobe, Takahama Mosaic, Kobe Naka Pier;
・Kyoto;
・Hokkaido Sapporo, Otaru, Hakodate; and
・International Waterfront Symposium in Kobe (Meriken Park Oriental Hotel), Tokyo (Tokyo Big Sight), Workshop (WAVE Offices).
2.1 Ports
The major revelation concerning the ports visited was their role as a significant participant in the provision of regional infrastructure beyond day to day commercial operations.
This is contrary to the Australian experience where port authorities are increasingly directed solely toward the commercial operation of the various ports. Any land redundant for port activities is transferred to other government authorities for rehabilitation/redevelopment.
