What Is Hands-On Support
From FY 2019 through FY 2024, MLIT operated the "Specialist Dispatch Hands-On Support" program targeting municipalities with populations under 200,000. The program dispatched specialists to municipalities to accompany staff in carrying out procedures necessary for project realization themselves. While advancing case formation for the supported municipality, it also aimed to laterally transfer the results.
In April 2025, MLIT Policy Bureau compiled the lessons obtained from these efforts and published "Points for Realizing PPP Projects Obtained from Hands-On Support via Specialist Dispatch." The purpose is to disseminate know-how that lets municipal staff advance PPP project realization autonomously and independently.
This article organizes the document's structure and summarizes its practical use.
Five-Year Support Targets (26 Municipalities)
The municipalities and projects that received Hands-On Support (including additions through FY 2024):
FY 2019
| Municipality | Project |
|---|---|
| Hokkaido Memuro Town | Heated pool DBO (Design-Build-Operate) project |
| Ibaraki Shimotsuma City | Public facility consolidation and complexification project |
| Saitama Moroyama Town | Public-private partnership project at Moroyama General Park |
| Aichi Toyoake City | Comprehensive management of urban parks and municipal cemeteries |
FY 2020
| Municipality | Project |
|---|---|
| Miyagi Tome City | Public-private partnership at roadside stations |
| Okayama Akaiwa City | Private housing development on former prefectural housing site |
| Yamaguchi Ube City | Urban park redevelopment and operation |
| Fukuoka Munakata City | Public-private partnership at urban parks |
| Kumamoto Tamana City | Public facility consolidation on former government office site |
FY 2021
| Municipality | Project |
|---|---|
| Fukushima Aizuwakamatsu City | Public parking development/operation and station plaza revitalization |
| Yamaguchi Ube City | Urban park redevelopment and operation |
| Okinawa Chatan Town | Public facility complexification and idle land utilization |
| Tokyo Koganei City | Sounding study on Koganei City Hanahatake Park concept |
| Osaka Izumi-Otsu City | Ability Town hub development |
| Hyogo Takasago City | Takasago Mukaijima Park area integrated use |
FY 2022
| Municipality | Project |
|---|---|
| Hokkaido Eniwa City | Municipal Kashiyo and Keio housing rebuild |
| Iwate Ichinohe Town | DBO method for roadside station design, construction, and operation |
| Aichi Aisai City | Roadside station surrounding development / Roadside station redevelopment |
| Osaka Kawachinagano City | Introduction of private sector vitality at urban parks |
FY 2023
| Municipality | Project |
|---|---|
| Chiba Kimitsu City | Introduction of private sector vitality at Minowa Sports Park |
| Shizuoka Kakegawa City | 22nd Century Hill Park Tamarina indoor playground development |
| Aichi Anjo City | PPP for construction and operation of Multi-purpose Exchange Hub |
| Osaka Kishiwada City | All-weather pool development at Kishiwada Central Park |
FY 2024
| Municipality | Project |
|---|---|
| Iwate Oshu City | Public housing rebuild PPP formation study |
| Ehime Masaki Town | Masaki Town social education facility renewal |
Roadside stations, urban parks, public housing, public facility consolidation, pools, parking, and station plazas — typical examples of public asset utilization in regional cities. Methods like Park-PFI, DBO, public housing, and small concessions are mixed, showing that Hands-On Support has covered a wide range of types.
Four Difficulty Levels by Project Type
As an output of Hands-On Support, public-private partnership projects are organized into four difficulty levels. The judgment axes are "necessity of specialist involvement" and "scope of stakeholders to coordinate."
Level 1: Existing Public Facility Operation + α (Private Proposal Elements)
Main review items:
- Performance-based ordering instead of specification-based ordering
- Small-scale renewal proposals
- Revenue businesses utilizing the facility, event implementation
Specialist involvement necessity: For small-scale projects, realization is possible with staff alone without advisor involvement.
Stakeholders to coordinate: Existing users, user groups, existing operators in management and operation.
Level 2: Public Land Utilization
Main review items:
- Review of constraints on utilization
- Review of utilization conditions (rent, leasehold period, rights, including fixed-term leasehold)
- Balance between revenue businesses and public interest elements
Specialist involvement necessity: By detailing the basic plan, work can be streamlined, and staff-only realization is also possible.
Stakeholders to coordinate: Neighboring residents, adjacent landowners, local companies running similar businesses.
Level 3: DBO / DB / Lease Methods
Main review items:
- Review and formulation of basic concept and basic plan
- Formulation of required service level documents
- Estimation of expected prices
Specialist involvement necessity: Technical advisor involvement is needed for formulating required service level documents and the like.
Stakeholders to coordinate: All residents in the area, local companies including construction firms, internal and council coordination on development budgets.
Level 4: PFI etc.
Main review items:
- Review and formulation of project contracts
- Review of payment schemes (installment payments and incentive schemes)
- Review of profitability of revenue businesses (RO method, concession method)
- Formulation of long-term repair plans, estimation of repair costs
- Implementation of facility due diligence, risk allocation for defect liability
Specialist involvement necessity: Since stable project conditions need to be built in advance over the long term, including financial institutions, financial, technical, and legal advisors are important for realization.
How to Use the Difficulty Levels
In advancing public-private partnership projects, it is effective to start with things that have lower difficulty and can be implemented by municipal staff themselves, then accumulate experience and know-how in preparation for introducing higher-difficulty PPP methods.
Rather than challenging PFI (level 4) from the start, the recommended path is to accumulate experience stepwise from levels 1-2.
The Three-Stage Project Realization Procedure
Stage 1: Project Conception
The phase of organizing project realization patterns and qualitative effects of introduction through dialogue with the private sector while considering stakeholder opinions.
Main tasks:
- Organization and concretization of items expected from PPP method introduction (purpose and premise confirmation, internal review structure construction, opinion gathering from stakeholders, momentum building, precedent investigation and hearings)
- Project conception stage sounding (preparation, implementation, summarization of results)
- Review of project realization policy
Stage 2: Project Condition Review
The phase of reviewing project conditions acceptable from both public and private viewpoints in order to realize the project concept.
Main tasks:
- Drafting of project scheme outline
- Project condition review stage sounding (individual sounding)
- Scheme decision and realization judgment (project scheme revision, expected price organization, project implementation effect grasp)
Stage 3: Tender and Realization
The phase of pouring project realization conditions fixed in the project condition review stage into specific tender-related documents and seeking better private sector know-how and ideas under specific conditions.
Main tasks:
- Review of tender schedule
- Preparation of various documents necessary for tender (solicitation guidelines, review criteria, required service levels, contract drafts, etc.)
- Preparation of Q&A
- Preparation of materials for the review committee
- Cautions for contract conclusion
- Cautions for internal procedures
Ultimately reaches operator selection and project commencement.
Design Intent of Targeting Municipalities Under 200,000
Hands-On Support targeted municipalities with populations under 200,000. That mirrors the threshold the Cabinet Office's guidelines originally set in 2015, requiring municipalities of 200,000 or more to establish priority review regulations.
That threshold has since fallen twice. The June 2021 revision lowered it to 100,000, and the current edition sets it at 50,000. Most of the municipalities under 200,000 that Hands-On Support served are now on the side required to have a regulation.
Municipalities under 200,000 do not have the regulation development obligation, but their PPP/PFI staff are limited and internal know-how is hard to accumulate. The Hands-On Support program pushes project realization for this scale of municipalities while leaving internal know-how with staff.
By design, even after support ends, the project realization capability remains within the municipality, building a foundation for continuous engagement with subsequent cases.
Practical Use
For Municipal Staff
When facing a case as PPP/PFI staff, first judge which of the four difficulty levels applies.
- Only existing facility operation improvement + private proposal elements → Level 1, can proceed with staff alone
- Public land utilization → Level 2, staff-only possible depending on scale
- DBO / DB / lease methods → Level 3, technical advisor needed
- PFI / concession → Level 4, financial, technical, and legal advisors essential
Then grasp where in the three procedural stages you currently are. At the project conception stage, start with sounding design and internal review structure construction.
For Private Operators
Hands-On Support target municipalities (populations under 200,000) have limited internal know-how, so private operator proposals and advice strongly influence project realization. Sharing the difficulty judgment and stage grasp improves the efficiency of dialogue with municipal staff.
Municipalities with support track records (the above 26) have accumulated certain knowledge on the staff side through Hands-On Support. The communication design at proposal time can be adjusted to the level of understanding of these municipalities.
Summary
MLIT's Specialist Dispatch Hands-On Support was a program from FY 2019 through FY 2024 targeting 26 municipalities with populations under 200,000, dispatching specialists to back project realization by staff themselves. The Policy Bureau published a document in April 2025 to laterally transfer these lessons.
It organizes the difficulty by project type into four levels (existing operation +α / public land utilization / DBO·DB·lease / PFI etc.), with levels 1-2 implementable by staff alone, level 3 requiring a technical advisor, and level 4 requiring financial, technical, and legal advisors.
PPP project realization procedures proceed in three stages (project conception / project condition review / tender realization). MLIT recommends starting from things with low difficulty that staff themselves can implement, accumulating experience, and then advancing to higher-difficulty methods.
What to do next
In the order you can act on them, within the week you read this.
| # | What to do | Where | Rough effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Establish the project cost. Above 1 billion yen including construction, or 100 million a year for operations alone, changes what priority review covers | Budget team | Half a day |
| 2 | Check whether your organisation has a priority review regulation. If not, follow the Cabinet Office guidelines | Planning team | One week |
| 3 | Sort facilities by whether user charges are levied, or could be. If they can be, operating rights come into view | Each department | One week |
| 4 | Use steps 1–3 to narrow the method: Park-PFI for urban parks, a small concession for other idle facilities | Departmental decision | — |
| 5 | Pick the first project and run market sounding. Do not advance every facility at once | Private operators | 2–3 months |
Step 1 takes half a day and decides whether review is mandatory at all.
References
Points for Realizing PPP Projects, from Hands-On Support by Dispatched Experts (main text) — Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2025)
Same, summary — Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2025)
Same, common questions — Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2021)
Guidelines and Handbooks | PPP/PFI — Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (2026)
Related Resources
- Primary Source Library: MLIT PPP/PFI Guidance Series (archived May 2026)
- Related guidance: The Hands-On Support documents are document 03 in the same archive (overview / main / body / FAQ / additions / attachments)
- Related articles: VFM Simplified Calculation Model Guide / MLIT Priority Review Regulation Guide / How to Conduct Market Sounding
