OTO No.

607

Classification

NPA-19

Date of Acceptance

June 5, 2000

Respective Office Receiving Complaint

Cabinet Office (Economic Planning Agency)

Responsible Ministries

National Police Agency

Related Laws

Enforcement Order for the Law for Securing Storage Space for Vehicles and Related Issues

Complainant

Domestic individual

Exporting Countries

USA

Subject

Expansion of the special measure concerning certificates for storage space for motor homes

Description of Complaint

1. If storage and management of a motor home meeting certain standards is delegated to a custody facility (motor pool) for a certain period on a continuing basis, the motor home will be identified as the "base of usage" and its owner will be able to obtain a parking certificate.

2. The complainant made an inquiry at a relevant police station and was told that the above special measure for a parking certificate cannot be applied unless storage and management of a motor home is delegated to a facility whose business is storage and management of such vehicles. However, the space in question has no special problems with storage and management of a motor home in terms of a distance from the owner's home and existing equipment and can achieve the purpose of a parking certificate to prevent open-air parking.

3. Accordingly, the motor home owner's land space should be identified as the "base of usage" under the special measure concerning storage space for motor homes even if the space is not a facility whose business is storage and management of motor homes, unless any special problems emerge with storage and management.

Details of Measures

The agency replied as follows:

(1) The "base of usage" is interpreted as "the base for a vehicle's operation and its usage management including check-up, maintenance and operation control." Since it is difficult to secure a storage space for a motor home in an urban center because of its large size, special measures have been taken to identify a facility at some distance the motor home owner's address as the "base of usage" for a motor home if the facility is operated by a third party that strictly keeps and manages motor homes and is certain to become an effective base of usage for the vehicle in question. However, the measure has made no exception to the distance between the base of usage and the storage location.

(2) The complainant demands that a location that is more than 2 km from his address be identified as the storage space for his motor home because he will take the responsibility of keeping the motor home in storage without any problems. Such requests can involve any type of vehicle and are not be limited to motor homes. The maximum distance between a vehicle owner's address as the base for usage and a vehicle storage location is based on realities of vehicle storage space in urban regions and on the view that if the distance between the base of vehicle usage and the vehicle storage location is 2 km or less, the vehicle owner can easily and regularly walk between them.

(3) Based on the above purposes of the order, it is inappropriate to review the conditions for the special measure.

Status of Processing

Processed  (September 19, 2000)

Classification of Action

D

Remarks

A written reply was made on June 16, 2000.

An additional written reply was made on August 8, 2000.