Abstract
The Decentralisation Reform in 2000 was an almost revolutionary change for local autonomy in Japan. The relationship between the national government and the municipalities was in reality a “hierarchical dominant-subordinate” relationship. As part of the Decentralisation Reform in 2000, the assigned functions system was institutionally abolished, the relationship between the national government and the municipalities was positioned as “equal”, and the municipalities which were equal to “local public entities” were described as “local governments” by the national government. However, this conversion did not suddenly occur in 2000. We can say that this was a consequence of social changes since the 1960s and “the transformation of municipalities into governments”. This chapter understands what condition its present concept are the footsteps of municipalities, and another D, which is decentralisation. This chapter sees the process and challenges for local autonomy in local government in Japan.
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Notes
- 1.
Amakawa (2017) pointed out that neither the Meiji Constitution nor most of the constitution drafts the Japanese government made had any provision on local autonomy. A self-government organisation is described as a local public entity instead of a local government. This term was used by the Japanese government on the occasion of creating the present Constitution (Imai 2017, pp. 204–205), which indicates its intention to position them as organisations to execute administration as opposed to governments. After the high-growth era, “jichi-tai” (self-governing body: municipality) became a common term.
- 2.
One of the cases where a municipality and the national government had differing opinions on assigned functions was the declaration not to accuse those foreigners who refused to be fingerprinted, issued by the mayor of Kawasaki City in 1985. Although a municipality was supposed to report to the police any foreign residents who refused to be fingerprinted, which was required by the Alien Registration Act of the time, he refused to do so (Kawasaki Local Government Research Centre, 2004). The obligation to be fingerprinted under the Alien Registration Act was resolved in stages from the 1990s after subsequent discussions. However, the September 11 attacks in 2001 triggered the revision of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act (Immigration Control Act) in 2006, which requires foreigners who enter Japan to provide fingerprints and a photograph.
- 3.
In 2011, Japan lost the lead to China in GDP.
- 4.
The journalist Masumi Ishikawa explained that discussing ideology in politics “seemed to be more important than talking about daily living” with respect to the circumstances of the time (Ishikawa and Hirose 1979, p. 17).
- 5.
Kawasaki City was the first case of such method in 1963, where it established “Standards on development and construction of housing complexes” for the development of large-scale multi-dwelling houses, followed by Kawanishi City, which established “Land development guidelines” in 1964.
- 6.
Although the right of the municipalities to enact an ordinance has been institutionally extended since decentralisation reform in 2000, a guideline-based administration against the backdrop of authority known as “discretion” of the government should not be allowed without limitation, and thus these guidelines have been becoming ordinances.
- 7.
In this respect, the heads of progressive municipalities repeatedly identified the lack of understanding of local autonomy and civic activities by “progressive parties” (Socialist Party and Communist Party) and the incompetence of the national-level response to “urban voters” (Tsuchiyama 2007).
- 8.
Such lawsuits include the Settsu Suit (filed for the fact that the subsidies from the national government were lower than the amount to be granted originally on an ongoing basis) and the Musashino City Water Supply Suit (arguing that the suspension of water supply to a new condominium had no consensus formation with the residents as required by the guidelines). As a result, both municipalities lost their case, and issues involved in the existing national system were widely discussed.
- 9.
The first ones established in Kaneyama-machi, Yamagata in 1972, and in Kanagawa in 1973. When the national government promulgated the Act on Access to Information in 1999 (enforced 2001), approximately 200 municipalities had such ordinances. Moreover, along with the establishment of such law by the national government, municipalities that had not yet established such ordinances also established the information disclosure ordinance. In 2017, almost all municipalities in Japan had the information disclosure ordinance.
- 10.
Forty-five per cent of assigned functions became work voluntarily operated by a municipality including the abolition of such work, and 55 per cent became statutory entrusted affairs assigned to municipalities by law.
- 11.
Needless to say, there is also a pioneering case in this field. Tajimi City, Gifu, which issued a declaration of financial crisis in 1996, subsequently organised principally all municipal operations in a structured way, prioritised their operations based on financial estimates, and designed a comprehensive plan system in conjunction with the budget and settlement. The head designs the plan by involving the participation of the citizens and the assembly. The plan is then formulated and implemented after the approval of the assembly. As an example of applying the Tajimi model, Kuriyama-cho, Hokkaido established a comprehensive plan ordinance under the initiative of the assembly (Kanbara and Oyano 2015).
- 12.
Imai (2008, 2017) denies that the financial difficulties of the national government were the driving force behind the great Heisei mergers. The financial influence of the mergers “had no major effect on the financial difficulties of the national government but became some figures which had a big impact on the finances of the municipalities”. As Imai (2008, 2017) points out, there remains a question why the mergers were advanced at such a fast pace.
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Tsuchiyama, K. (2019). Decentralisation and the Triple Ds in Japanese Municipalities. In: Shiraishi, K., Matoba, N. (eds) Depopulation, Deindustrialisation and Disasters. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14475-3_3
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