The national development plans and other regional plans in Japan had been formulated based on a traditional type of regional development model i.e. industrial development triggered by infrastructure development such as roads, ports etc. In this paper this model is identified as “the industrialization type regional development model”. However, this model gradually lost its effectiveness since Japanese industries tended to locate their new factories abroad due to the drastic change of economic and industrial climate after the Plaza Accord and the decreasing population of young generation in the local area. Since then, regional development projects in this country had to be planned without having a common and effective development model. The author who took part in formulation of “The Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan 1987”, advocated a new type of regional development model i.e. “Exchange-Promotion-Oriented regional development model (EPO model)”. By this model, each region should re-establish its own identity, for revitalization the region, by promoting inter-regional exchange which would give good opportunities to experience different cultures, values and practices of the other regions. This model is not so popular as “the introducing industries type regional development model” and the absence of the effective regional development model still continues. The Interim Report of The National Land Sustainable Plan released in 2006, described the national land structure as the aggregate of the regions with own identities and values. Direct inter-exchanges of those regions with growing Asian regions will be the basic development concept. This can be said as the first case of applying EPO model as an effective model. This paper is to introduce the EPO model and to examine its effectiveness as regional development model. The national development plans and other regional plans in Japan had been formulated based on a regional development model such as industrial development triggered by infrastructure development. However, this model gradually lost its effectiveness since Japanese industries tended to locate their new factories abroad due to the drastic change of economic and industrial climate after the Plaza Accord and the decreasing population of young generation in the local area. Since then, regional development projects in this country had to be planned without having a common and effective development model. The author who took part in formulation of “The Fourth Comprehensive National Development Plan 1987”, advocated a new type of regional development model i.e. “Exchange-Promotion-Oriented regional development model (EPO model)”. The National Land Sustainable Plan released in 2008, also applying EPO model as an effective model. In this paper, we intend to verify that the regional development (activation) model of our country changed with the Plaza Accord, and the EPO model has a possibility to become a leading model in network society. JEL Classification: R58