Abstract
The Japanese Government has established a subsidy system in 2002 to assist enterprises that are planning modal shift from truck to rail or ship. Projects were chosen by auction procedure in order to maximize the impact of the subsidy. A questionnaire survey conducted by the government determines the reasons why enterprises initiated modal shift and their views or policies concerning the problem of CO2 emission and green gas. Most of the enterprises had planned modal shift from truck to rail instead of ship transport because of the higher CO2 emission rate per unit ton-km of railway as compared with ship. The annual budget for modal shift, however, is limited to 300 million yen which corresponds to only 1/12 of CO2 reduction volume expected in the grand plan through modal split.
