In 1999, The Package Promoting Decentralization Act was enacted, and came into law in 2000. This Act provides 1) role-sharing between central government and local government, 2) abolition of the system of agent delegated functions, 3) re-examination of intervention by central government, 4) establishment of the Central-Local Government Dispute Resolution Council, along with other alterations. The Act, however, has not fully realized decentralization in Japan, and it has only raised the independence of local government a little by correcting some of the conventional political administrative methods. Thus it is just the starting line for real reform. In Japan, a lot of decentralization reform is presently under way, such as "the reform package of three issues", the so-called "Sanmi Ittai Kaikaku", and mergers of municipalities. However, further and more extensive reform will certainly be needed to create a really decentralized society. I believe that each nation needs to promote decentralization, and continually attempt improvements by overcoming any obstacles to self-government step by step.
|
