First national territorial plan using growth-pole theory and new industrial cities to balance regional development
Launched the five-plan Zenso lineage and the postwar doctrine of balanced national-land development
Adopted by cabinet in 1962, the First Comprehensive National Development Plan, known as Zenso, was Japan's first statutory plan for the development of the national territory. Prepared under the Economic Planning Agency, it sought well-balanced development of national land, the reduction of regional disparities, and relief of congestion in the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya and the Pacific Belt. Its central instrument was a growth-pole strategy: designating new industrial cities in less developed regions to attract industry and population away from the established conurbations, supported by coordinated investment in transport, communications and energy infrastructure.
The plan established the framework of balanced national-land development that defined postwar Japanese territorial policy. It inaugurated the five-plan Zenso lineage running from 1962 to the late 1990s, embedding growth-pole theory, new industrial cities and later technopolis strategies in national practice, and tying spatial planning to a politically powerful coalition of public works investment.