A Study on Development of Human Resources
for Local Governments in Asia
Based on the trends towards local autonomy and decentralization in Asian countries, this research project was conducted from April 2001 to March 2003, to determine the feasibility of establishing an advanced international education program for local administration in Japan.
This report consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1: "History of Japan's International Cooperation Measures" outlines the history of Japan's international cooperation from the postwar period to the present and identifies the importance of future human resource development.
Chapter 2: "The Trends towards Local Autonomy and Decentralization in Asian Countries and the Need for Japanese Cooperation for Human Resource Development" analyzes the results of field surveys conducted in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand), South Korea, and China from August 2001 to October 2002. Specifically, this chapter consists of the following six reports:
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(1) "Malaysia" (Yuji Suzuki, Professor, Faculty of Law, Hosei University)
This report presents the historical context that produced the sole federal state in Southeast Asia. Then, it fleshes out the complex relationship between the federal, state, and local governments that compose the administrative structure in Malaysia and identifies the latest trends.
(2) "The Philippines" (the late Jiro Kubota, Professor, Faculty of Law, Niigata University) This report describes the current status of the Philippines, in which decentralization is promoted under the new local autonomy law, and also outlines the personnel and training systems for employees engaged in local autonomy and administration.
(3) "Indonesia" (Takashi Shiraishi, Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University) Acknowledging the fact that the new local autonomy system that began in 2000 after the collapse of the Suharto regime, is still in its formative stage, this report identifies the basic features of the current system by comparison with that of the Suharto regime.
(4) "Thailand" (Fumio Nagai, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Osaka City University) This report attempts to highlight the fact that the Ministry of Interior has strong control over local governments in terms of both "local administration" and "local autonomy" by means of control of personnel matters. There is a concomitant analysis of the Ministry's personnel system.
(5) "South Korea" (Shigeru Tamura, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Niigata University) This report describes the local autonomy system in South Korea where efforts are being made to promote decentralization. In addition, it analyzes the current status and needs of South Korea, that is currently focusing on developing national and local government employees.
(6) "China" (Yasushi Isobe, Assistant Professor, Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies) This report mainly identifies the current situation in china. The reality being that the authority relationship between the central and local governments has become muddled due to: the country's shift to a market economy, its vast geographical area, and complex regional administrative organizations.
Chapter 3: "Challenges of Decentralization in Asian Countries" (Keiichi Oguro, Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Shizuoka) analyzes the background of decentralization in Asian countries and the fact that decentralization is not necessarily progressing steadily and reveals the difficulties in and challenges to promoting decentralization.
Chapter 4: "Japan's Cooperation in Human Resource Development Programs Conducted in Asia" provides an overview of Japan's system to support developing countries in human resource development. This is followed by a section entitled "Status of Support Offered to Foreign Students Studying in Japan" (Masashi Kudo, Executive Director, Asian Students Cultural Association) which points out that the circumstances surrounding foreign students differ between government scholarship recipients and those who are privately financed. With a special focus on the sharp increase of privately-financed foreign students from Asian countries, the present support systems are explained in detail and the weaknsses are identified.
Based on the analyses and assertions presented in the previous four chapters, the final chapter, Chapter 5: "The Program to Support Asian Countries to Cultivate Human Resources for Local Autonomy: A Proposal" (by Kiyotaka Yokomichi, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) insists that the establishment of a human resource development program for government officials involved in local autonomy in Asia is essential, because this program is capable of enhancing Japan's intellectual contributions in the field of human resource development as well as being able to establishing a person-to-person network among government employees from the various countries. This program will provide government officials from Asian countries with graduate level education in the field of local autonomy and administration.
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