Local government development in post-war Japan
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Local government development in post-war Japan
Oxford University Press, 2001
Available at 67 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book examines the evolution of intergovernmental relations in postwar Japan. These relations are shown to be both complex and dynamic, and the Japanese model is revealed as one in which aspects of both central control and local autonomy have co-existed with the balance shifting gradually over time towards the latter. The Japanese system has helped to maintain broad-based economic growth since it has at its core a strongly egalitarian fiscal transfer mechanism.
At the same time, it has proved to be consistent, to a much greater extent than previously recognized, with political development, or progress in the attainment of such political values as liberty (personal rights) and equality (broad participation in public affairs) for individuals and communities.
This is because the national government has proved flexible enough to accommodate, although not always with grace or alacrity, citizen concerns about the quality of life. The Japanese approach to intergovernmental relationships has also been successful in solving coordination problems which often arise between local and central government units and in building capacity to support greater and effective decentralization. Coordination problems have been handled through a variety of mechanisms
including the practice of agency delegated functions, while local capacity issues have been addressed through such practices as the exchange of personnel across different levels of government and the use of attractive compensation and training packages to recruit and retain local staff. The Japanese
experience thus provides an example of gradual and guided decentralization based on shared responsibilities between local and central governments for mobilizing, managing, and spending public resources in the pursuit of sustainable development.
Table of Contents
- 1. Understanding Japanese Central-Local Government Relations: Perspectives, Models, and Salient Characteristics
- 2. Towards Political Inclusiveness: The Changing Role of Local Government
- 3. Partnership in Controlled Decentralization: Local Governments and the Ministry of Home Affairs
- 4. Local Taxes and Intergovernmental Transfers in Japan's Local Public Finances
- 5. Impersonal Mechanisms and Personal Networks in the Distribution of Central Grants to Local Governments in Japan
- 6. An Analysis of Staff Loans and Transfers Among Central and Local Governments in Japan
- 7. Personnel Pay Systems and Organizations of Local Governments
- 8. Municipal Amalgamation in Japan
- 9. The Agency-Delegated Function and its Implications
- 10. Local Policy Initiatives in Integrated Central-Local Relations
- 11. Local Government Development: Some Lessons of Experience from Japan
by "Nielsen BookData"