A Study on Local Governance
The roles and functions currently being carried out by such entities of local governance as cities, towns, villages, corporate citizens, and NPOs, should be strengthened in order to implement local administrations which meet the needs of the future. In particular, the future course of the basic self-governing bodies, namely cities, towns and villages, are considered important. The government-organized Committee for the Promotion of Decentralization has suggested that annexations among cities, towns and villages should be enhanced, so as to establish local governments with stronger administrative and financial foundations. With stronger foundations, local governments will be able to provide high-quality administrative services, and thus be able to respond to the needs of the residents. However, the committee has yet to present actual recommendations concerning how the city-town-village annexations will take shape, or what measures may actually be taken. For example, the size of the ideal local governments and guidelines concerning the annexation process have to be determined. This study group focused on these points and considered what role municipalities, as major actors in local governance, should play.
At present, Japanese municipalities are facing serious financial difficulties; moreover, they must change the content of their services since traditional administrative demands have changed rapidly. In addition, as organizations responsible for deregulation, municipalities are further required to have the ability to independently plan, consider and conduct policies, along with assuming the responsibilities related thereto.
As this situation demonstrates, strengthening the function of municipalities while merging municipalities raises the question of local governments' right to self-government. Strong opinions exist that the central government's participation in regional affairs should be rather limited. However, Article92of Japan's Constitution provides that matters related to the local autonomy system are the central government's affairs. Therefore, the central government cannot be prohibited from imposing its opinion on issues concerning the size and range of local governments. In short, it is necessary to keep a balance between the local governments' autonomy and the central government's responsibility.
In order to provide new administrative services in the future, it is necessary to improve the administrative system while dealing with each region's unique situation. The measures for this should be chosen so that regional characteristics will be reflected in the local governments' policies thereby making the independence of the local governments more visible. Thus, desirable organizations are those which can satisfy certain criteria concerning human resources, financial resources, expertise in providing services and the ability to demonstrate creativity in planning and conducting policies. To this end, there is also the option of broader-based local government. However, considering clear administrative responsibilities, the convenience of coordinating administrative fields and the possibility of comprehensive decision making, the merger of municipalities seems to be more desirable.
Regarding the size of municipalities as the premise of strengthening the function of municipalities, it is necessary to consider two contradicting elements of the cost efficiency in supplying services and the reflection of residents' will. However, the conditions to be considered for each region are rather different, and it is quite difficult to establish uniform standards.
Considering the recruitment of suitable human resources and the effective conductance of the local government's core services, it becomes apparent that some small-size local governments need to consider what steps they need to take in order to become municipalities which provide more advanced administrative services.
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