Structural Reform of Local Autonomy	No.642 July 21, 2009
		The government’s Study Panel on Local Administration issued July 16 its 29th round of recommendations. The package of advice, analyzing outcomes of the administrative reorganization policy, proposes the more improved monitoring system and advises how to manage well local assemblies to promote the decentralization policy. Though it does not refer directly to a plan to reorganize the existing 47 prefectures to a dozen of bigger administrative units, called the Do-Shu Province System, the government is intended to carry it out. REORGANIZATION OF 47 PREFECTURES INTO A DOZEN PROVINCES The package is entitled Government’s Recommendations on the New Basic Administrative Units, Monitoring System and Management of Local Assemblies. For the past decade the number of municipalities has reduced from 3232 cities, towns and villages (as of March 31, 1990) to 1760 (scheduled on March 23, 2010). The government appraises that the merger policy has been completed to a good extent. It concludes with satisfaction that; 1) the newly established municipalities are ready to accept the decentralization initiative 2) the administrative and financial capabilities have been enhanced to cope with the issues of a population decrease and demographic changes (= fewer births with larger elderly population) 3) fresh regional commitments activate local economies in the broader context 4) local govenance is more efficient as public workers were reduced Concerns Are Realities Behind the government appraisal, those anticipated concerns have become severe realities today. The document is obliged to admit that voices of inhabitants cannot easily reach the authorities, peripheral regions are excluded and specific traditions and cultural heritages are endangered. The recent events prove the facts: in the elections held from January to April to choose a mayor 24 incumbent mayors out of 74 merged municipalities were defeated. Meanwhile, only 2 incumbent mayors lost in 19 cities which remained intact by the merger policy. Residents are weary of phantom of administrative reforms. The driving force to make municipalities rush into merging was a big cut of the state’s subsidies paid to local bodies. Thus many villages, towns and cities were forced to obey the initiative. Inhabitants Owe State’s Debts Under the initiative many public hospitals have been reorganized or gone bankrupted, by which inhabitants are deprived of the rights to survive and keep healthy. That is because of a series of structural reforms carried out in the health care sector and implementation of the Sound Finance Act. People’s health is more vulnerable to risks. A good example is experiences in Chikusei City, a western municipality of Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo. Anticipating merger, the relevant cities and towns had hurried up in the public construction projects and had gone to the worst financial impasse: child-care services were ended or suspended, public utility fares surged and health insurance premium was heightened. The public hospital cannot function as an ambulance center, which made the city authority to privatize it. As a result, the incumbent candidate lost in the mayor’s election with a big margin. In conclusion, the merger policy of municipalities is an instrument to introduce the Do-Shu Province System; sacrificing inhabitants, it makes municipalities a receptacle to owe risks to rebuild the state finance. A New Source of Profits Let’s look at Osaka Prefecture. It will be incorporated to a broader province of Kansai. The prefecture is under Governor Hashimoto. Though the local assembly rejected the initiative, Governor had planned to move the local government offices to the World Trade Center Building, which suffers from deficits. He had proposed to buy the building in Osaka City with an extremely low price. In the background of the governor’s decision, there lies a request of the region’s financial group. The business circle wants to resume a defunct plan, the Osaka Bay Area Development Project, which may produce profits if the railway and highway network plan goes on. As you see, the Do-Shu Province System is a business to the financial circle. The idea of decentralization of state powers under the system means a simple change of mode in the State’s control over local governments.