①Administrative agencies are to establish review standards.

②In establishing review standards, administrative agencies must make them as concrete as possible in light of the nature of the permission or other approvals.

③Except when there are special administrative obstacles, an administrative agency must publicize the review standards by keeping them at the office that is the place for submitting applications pursuant to laws and regulations, or by other appropriate methods.

An administrative agency must endeavor to establish a standard period normally required between when an application arrives at its office and when disposition for that application is rendered (if an organ different from the administrative agency is the place for submitting the application pursuant to laws and regulations, including a standard period normally required between the time when the application arrives at the office of the organ that has been designated as the place to submit the application and when it arrives at the office of that administrative agency), and upon establishing the standard period, must publicize it by keeping it at the office of the organ that is designated as the place to submit the application or by other appropriate methods.

Upon the arrival of an application at the office of an administrative agency, the agency must commence a review of the application without delay, and, for an application that does not conform to requirements of there being no deficiency in the entries of the written application, the necessary documents being attached to the application, the application being filed within a specified period, or other pro forma requirements specified by laws and regulations, the agency must promptly request a person who has filed the application (referred to as "applicant" below) to amend the application by specifying a reasonable period , or refuse the permission or other approvals sought through the application.

①If an administrative agency renders a disposition to refuse the permission or other approvals sought through the application, the agency must indicate the grounds for the disposition at the same time to an applicant; provided, however, that if the requirements for the permission or other approvals specified by laws and regulations or the review standards publicized have been clearly provided for by quantitative indexes or other objective indexes, and the fact that the application does not conform to those requirements are obvious from the entries in the written application or the attached documents, it is sufficient to indicate the grounds for the refusal when requested by the applicant.

②When the disposition prescribed in the main clause of the preceding paragraph are to be rendered in writing, the grounds referred to in the preceding paragraph must be indicated in writing.

①In response to requests by an applicant, an administrative agency must endeavor to indicate the progress of the review of an application and the projected time for rendering a disposition on that application.

②In response to the request by a person planning to file applications or an applicant, an administrative agency must endeavor to provide information on the entries in written applications, documents attached to them, and other information necessary for filing applications.

When rendering dispositions on an application for which the applicable laws and regulations provide that the requirement for granting permission or other approvals is that the interests of persons other than the applicant should be considered, an administrative agency must endeavor to provide an opportunity to hear the opinions of the persons other than the applicant, by holding public hearings or by other appropriate methods, as necessary.

①When processing an application, an administrative agency must not deliberately delay the review or judgment on whether that administrative agency is to grant permission or other approvals that should be made by the administrative agency, due to the fact that a related application filed by the same applicant is under review at another administrative agency .

②When multiple administrative agencies are involved in a disposition on a single application or several related applications from the same applicant, those multiple administrative agencies are to endeavor to accelerate their review by contacting each other as necessary, and jointly conduct hearing or other acts of explanations from the applicant.