Local Government Income and Spending

Abstract

The two most compelling and important tides moving in Japanese society since the war have been the expansion and development of its private sector economic base, and the flowering of its social expectations and institutions leading to a better quality of life for the average citizen. Until a few years ago, these tides were not seen to be in conflict. The Japanese people seem to recognize, more than the citizens of other countries, how closely their new and attractive society is linked to the innovation and vitality of the private sector. The new wealth of the nation has been diffused with reasonable equity across most of the population, and until about ten years ago, it was hard to find fault with the proportion of this national wealth which flowed into governments at all levels. There was wide consensus behind a whole new social agenda. The Japanese are not given to public bragging, but it seems clear that there is a deep-seated belief that Japan can and should be the equal of any nation in the things which characterize a civilized, advanced society: education, culture, health and well-being, modern public infrastructure, and a democratic and responsive government. The Japanese set in simultaneous motion broad public programs to achieve these objectives, financed by the “miracle” economic development.