Regional Government System and Decentralization

Tsutomu OKUDA Vice Chairman of the Board of Councillors, Nippon Keidanren President, J. Front Retailing Co., Ltd. Chairman, The Daimaru, Inc.

Debates on the regional government system (doshu-sei) have been heating up. The Abe Cabinet created the post of Minister of State for the Regional System for the first time and, as its advisory panel, the Council for the Vision of Regional System was set up to discuss basic issues concerning the introduction of the regional government system. Public interest also seems to be slowly growing.

The centralized government of Japan achieved two miraculous economic growths in the Meiji and Showa periods. However, it fails to cope with environmental changes including diversification of values, social maturation and increasing global competition, and now the inefficiency and diseconomy of the uniform standards imposed throughout the nation have become prominent. The concentration of population, industry and information in Tokyo, where the central government ministries and agencies that have powers and financial resources are located, caused economic disparities with other areas and these gaps are still widening.

By introducing the regional government system, each region will show originality and compete for economic revitalization. And it is expected to lead to the revitalization of the whole Japanese economy as well as the reduction of regional disparities. It should be noted that mere expansion in size of prefectures is not enough for each region to display its originality and that it is required to promote decentralization so that regional governments can achieve autonomy, think by themselves and make decisions on their own responsibility.

Japan should promote decentralization based on the "principle of subsidiarity." Like companies have handed over powers to people in the forefront of changes to respond to rapid environmental changes, lower-tier municipalities closest to residents (cities, towns and villages) are given as many powers as possible, and do and shu as upper-tier municipalities are authorized by the national government to tackle the tasks that lower-tier units cannot deal with, while the central government concentrates on what only it can do, such as diplomacy, defense and currency control.

The regional government system talks tend to incline toward the zoning of do and shu and the tasks to be tackled by do and shu. However, we have to remember that it is necessary to have in-depth discussions on the roles of lower-tier municipalities and the powers to be transferred to them, what the central government ministries and agencies should be after transferring their powers, and the transfer of financial resources supporting these powers as well.