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Public Facility Management Guide: What to Do After Your Management Plan
A practical guide for municipalities that have completed a comprehensive management plan. Covers PPP/PFI method selection, designated management reform, and a facility-type selection matrix.
How to Reuse a Closed School: Survey Counts, MEXT's List of Closed Schools Seeking Uses, the Property Disposal Procedure, and National Subsidies
What a municipality or operator should check in national documents before reusing a closed school: the counts in MEXT's survey and why uses stay undecided, MEXT's list of closed school facilities seeking new uses, the property disposal procedure under the notice of 31 March 2026 (when no procedure is needed, when a report is enough, and when no treasury repayment is due), the national subsidy list as of April 2026, and the contract forms in the 47 casebook cases, with links to articles by use.
Park-PFI Implementation Guide — What 203 Parks Reveal About the Steps Municipalities Should Actually Take [2026 Edition]
Of the 203 parks that have adopted Park-PFI, what worked and what didn't. The three special exemptions, feasibility study, market sounding, solicitation, and contract — all mapped step-by-step for municipal staff. Includes the difference from the Designated Manager System, applicability to small parks, and how to avoid the common failure patterns.
What Are Small Concessions? — Turning Small-Scale Public Facilities into Private Projects, and How Municipalities and Operators Should Move [2026 Edition]
Small Concessions is a new PPP framework optimized for small-scale projects: no VFM calculation required, lighter sounding requirements. This guide covers eligible facilities, project methods, nationwide cases, subsidies, and the application process — reflecting MLIT's 'Sumokon no Susume' published May 25, 2026.
What Is Public Facility Management? Challenges, Concepts, and Next Steps
An introduction to public facility management: why aging infrastructure, fiscal pressure, and population decline make consolidation insufficient, and how PPP/PFI and private-sector engagement offer a path forward.
How to Repurpose an Abandoned School — A Complete Step-by-Step Guide from Site Selection to Proposal [2026 Edition]
For businesses and municipalities exploring abandoned school reuse. Starting from 8,850 cumulative closures and 1,951 unused facilities, this guide walks through the 7 steps from site survey through policy formulation, property disposition, use-change permits, sounding, proposals and opening, the subsidy programs by ministry, and three failures to avoid before you start, checked against MEXT and other official sources.
What Is Park-PFI? How Japan's Public Park PPP System Works, with Case Studies
Park-PFI explained: the legal framework, three special provisions (20-year permits, 12% coverage, expanded occupancy), and 203 nationwide case studies. A practical first read for municipal officials considering park activation.
What Is a Small Concession? A Complete Guide for Local Government Officials [2026 Edition]
A Small Concession is a small-scale PPP/PFI project that leverages private-sector innovation to activate idle public real estate. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) established a dedicated platform in 2024. This guide covers definitions, eligible facilities, project methods, the three structural barriers, and how to get started.
READING GUIDE
Choose a starting point.
Follow a short route through the basics, examples and practical steps. Community groups, researchers and students are welcome.
ROUTE 01
For municipal planning
Start with the basics, then move through cases, process and dialogue design.
- What Is Public Facility Management? Challenges, Concepts, and Next Steps
- Sapporo Yurigahara Park Park-PFI LiLiLi — Sapporo's First Case, Community-Led SPV Park Operation
- The Complete Park-PFI Process — A Four-Year Roadmap from Concept to Opening [2026 Edition]
- Market Sounding for PPP: 8-Item Question Template and Step-by-Step Guide
ROUTE 02
For prospective operators
Understand the system, test viability and prepare a proposal.
- What Is a Small Concession? A Complete Guide for Local Government Officials [2026 Edition]
- Higashi Yuenchi URBAN PICNIC — Kobe Sannomiya Redevelopment and Park-PFI After 8 Years of Citizen-Led Social Experiments
- How to Build a Park-PFI Revenue Plan — With Simulation Template [2026 Edition]
- How to Write a Park-PFI Proposal — Working Backward from the Scoring Criteria [2026 Edition]
ROUTE 03
Learn from setbacks
See how projects stall and which conditions to avoid.
- Abandoned School Reuse Failures — Why Repurposed Schools Become Idle Again: Structural Causes of Withdrawal and Business Collapse
- 5 Patterns of Park-PFI Project Failure — Structural Analysis of Contract Termination, Financial Deterioration, and Resident Opposition
- The Zero-Response Sounding Problem — 5 Reasons Private Operators Don't Participate and How to Fix It