Municipal incentive zoning guidelines and administrative guidance procedures as applied to atriums as public open space were analyzed based on a nation-wide questionnaire survey. Among 187 municipalities responded, 155 followed the procedure based on the national notification, 26 applied the Tokyo Metropolitan Government model and 7 developed original guidelines. The definition, approval criteria and zoning bonus coefficient of atriums varied across these procedure types. Administrative guidance, with only a few tools for management supervision, was scarcely practiced after projects were opened, which revealed plenty of scope for improvement in municipal guidelines and administrative capabilities.