NIRA News, No.1 January 2005

[Completed Research Project]

Reorganization of Regional Governments and Perspectives of a New Regional System -- Increasing the Areas Administered by Regional Governments and Revitalizing Local Community Organizations

Increasing decentralization, and the reorganization of local governments that is part of this process, have grown into global trends. At present, Japan's prefectures have become insufficient as a framework to execute the authority delegated by the central government.

Proposals focusing on the optimal system of local government were formulated in this research project by examining such issues as the re-engineering of the central government's role and establishing a system with which the citizens can feel an affinity.

Specifically, information was gathered and summarized by examining domestic discussions developed to date, proposals presented by other institutions and attempts made in other nations (e.g., Italy, France and Germany), which then was discussed by the project's study group. Based on the results of the discussions, a three-tiered system of local governance composed of province, prefecture (including special cities) and city/town/village (zone) was presented. The proposed role of the province is the planning and adjustment of policies, and the establishment of economic and development programs for each wide-area block, both of which are roles presently undertaken by the central government.

[New Research Projects]

Research on the Establishment of a Municipal Administrative Evaluation Forum (tentative title)

In recent years, many local governments have endeavored to introduce administrative evaluation procedures in order to improve the efficiency of administrative management. The evaluation standards, however, are applied independently, and therefore, a common platform whereby local governments are able to exchange their evaluation results is necessary.

NIRA has conducted and subsidized research projects related to administrative evaluation, such as the "Research on the Introduction of the NPM (New Public Management) Approach into Local Governments" and obtained significant results. As pointed out in this project, many local governments are interested in introducing adminsitrative evaluation utilizing the benchmarking method. In addition, according to the research report, administrative evaluations conducted on a common platform are useful in terms of improving administrative management and also extremely effective in establishing a strategic management model oriented towards the citizenry.

This research project will present perspectives for a "conmprehensive administrative evaluation platform for municipal governments," which is the project's final goal. As a first step, the feasibility of establishing a "municipal adminsitrative evaluation forum" will be examined based on the cooperation of the members of the Council of Local Think Tanks.

Presentation of the Final Research Results by NIRA's Visiting Research Fellow

"The Role and Problems of NGOs in the Establishment of Progressive Civil Society - With a Focus on the Acitivities Developed by South Korean and Japanese Development NGOs"

What is a "development NGO"?

Development NGOs are bodies that participate in the development of the third world by promoting activities for the eradication of poverty, economic development and emergency relief. The primary functions of development NGOs can be categorized into development activities (provision of humanitarian aid, participation in development activities in developing nations, and provision of financial and personnel resources), development education activities (provision of education and publicity activities in industrialized nations focusing on development issues) and policy proposal acitivities (provision of consultation for development and aid policies).

The difference between South Korean and Japanese development NGOs

While the majority of development NGOs are approved as corporate bodies in South Korea, a large number of small-scale development NGOs are not approved in Japan. Although the total number of development NGOs is larger in Japan than South Korea, the South Korean NGOs are larger in scale and surpass Japanese NGOs from the perspective of financial and human resources. Japanese NGOs tend to specialize in the region in which they are located and conduct activities limited to a specific field, but are weak with respect to advocacy activities. On the other hand, South Korean development NGOs are more dynamic although they seem weak with respect to specialty fields. Further, while South Korean NGOs emphasize emergency aid and development activities, Japanese NGOs are active in development education and have the foundation necessary to specialize.

Cooperation between Japanese and South Korean development NGOs and establishing a new relationship in pursuit of change

Japanese and South Korean NGOs have many commonalities in the activities they develop and the problems they face. In order for the NGOs of the two nations to promote mutual development, they must enhance cooperation by emphasizing their similarities and supplementing their differences. The following are the specific measures suggested.

Although South Korea and Japan have distinct characteristics, they share many factors due to geographic closeness and common social and cultural backgrounds. This similarity must be reflected in the exchange between Japanese and South Korean NGOs. The exchange between and cooperation of the NGOs will create synergistic effects and therefore, contribute to establishing the foundation necessary for clarifying their goals more specifically and effectively.

[New Publications]

NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks 2005 NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks 2005
(Fifth revised edition)

The worldwide network of think tanks is expanding. In order to collect, analyze and disseminate information on Japanese and foreign think tanks, NIRA's Center for Policy Research Information has conducted a survey triennially for think tanks around the world and published the results in an English language directory. The directory aims to contribute to establishing an intellectual infrastructure and realizing cooperation between think tanks.

In the 2005 edition of the directory, which contains information on 318 institutes from 89 nations, the layout was revamped for ease of use. The directory, a representative NIRA publication, is a comprehensive source of information, and has been used through the years by research institutions, corporate entities, and universities around the world.

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