Requests for comments issued by government offices are an indication that they are considering the procurement of a certain good or service.  This makes it possible to anticipate on upcoming tenders at an early stage and even have influence on the content of the specifications of the actual tender. 

For example on December 25, 2014, the Cabinet Office published the following notice of request for comments

Lease and Maintenance of sets of devices of Core system of Cooperation network systems for personal information and Monitoring and supervision system １set Time-Limit for the submission of comments : 12:00 ,14 January 2015

Contact point for the notice : 　Go Sekiguchi, Contract 4 Section, 　Accounts Division, Minister's 　Secretariat, Cabinet Office,１－６－１ 　Nagata-cho,Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 　100－8914,Japan. TEL03－5253－2111 ext.82322

It concerns an IT related project that is of a scale that is above the WTO threshold, which is why the notice is published in English as well.
Details about this request for comments in Japanese can be found at http://www.chotatujoho.go.jp/csjs/pr006/ProInfoSearchEngInitAction.do?pctKind=04
by entering the appropriate publishing date,and then by entering the GEPS system.

We have already downloaded the files (zip-format) related to this invitation for you and can be accessed here.

Do you want us to provide you with more details? Get in touch!