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The GX Strategic Regional System (GX戦略地域制度) is METI's framework for turning idle industrial assets -- former or underused "combinate" (kombinato) petrochemical/heavy-industry complex sites, spare land, and regionally scattered decarbonized power sources -- into new "GX-type" industrial clusters. It defines four site categories: (1) combinate regeneration, (2) data-centre aggregation, (3) decarbonized-power utilisation (GX industrial parks), and (4) decarbonized-power regional contribution (see the separately filed 2025-12-26-japan-meti-fy2026-decarbonized-power-regional-contribution-grant for category 4). This action covers category 1 only.
The FY2026 budget creates a dedicated, single-year JPY 3.0 billion commercialisation-support line for category-1 sites: it does not fund construction directly but pays for the feasibility, investment-case, and off-taker-matching work needed to move a candidate combinate site from "promising region" to a bankable redevelopment project. METI ran a first-round screening of the whole GX Strategic Regional System in early 2026 and, on 24 April 2026, announced 38 "promising regions" nationwide across all four categories, of which six were in the combinate-regeneration category: Chiba, Kawasaki, Hyogo, Kagawa, Okayama, and Yamaguchi. Final designation of GX Strategic Regions is planned for summer 2026.
Okayama, Yamaguchi) are now in the pipeline for combinate-regeneration redevelopment; final designation (~summer 2026) will identify the specific site operators and off-take industries eligible for follow-on capital support.
contribution line already filed -- track separately to avoid double- counting GX Strategic Regional System budget exposure.
six candidate regions are the most likely near-term beneficiaries once final designation and follow-on capital-support programmes are announced.
Strategic Region designation completes in summer 2026.
feasibility-support line) is budgeted for FY2027 once sites are finalised.