For purposes of control of increasing costs through corporate activities and consumption, it has become important to promote internationally comparable performance regulations for engineering standards and specifications, as in the 'Three-year promotional plan for regulatory reform and the promotion of private participation (cabinet meeting decision on 19 March 2004) '. This is part of structural reform initiated by the government. In accordance with government policy, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has endeavored to revise the port law and redesign the performance regulations of engineering standards for ports. The redesigned performance regulations would enable the persons concerned to design economically but also imaginatively. However, it requires an advanced understanding of engineering to sufficiently evaluate the designs which qualify. Therefore, in this port law revision, it is a prerequisite that the evaluation of these advanced designs be conducted by MLIT, or registered evaluation agencies which have the same engineering stature as MLIT. Furthermore, as social infrastructures are increasingly necessitating effective utilization under financial stringency, because of low birthrates and increasing longevity, existing port facilities need to promote the appropriate maintenance and management systems in order to reduce the lifecycle costs. Considering the background above, this month's articles introduce efforts to progress the performance regulations of engineering standards and assets management (life cycle management), towards efficient port developments.