논문

Local government reform is claimed as the "Third Revolution" by the chairman of the Committee for Promoting Decentralization. New legislation to decentralize administration was passed last July and hailed as a major step toward viable governability in the Japanese society. Having spent more than five years in the preparation stage, its effectiveness must be scrutinized. It is more or less an effort at the central government level, while endogenous reforms have already been made by entrepreneurial leaders at local governments in recent few years.
This paper will highlight recent developments in Japanese local government reform at the center and the periphery. This reform must then be placed in the wider perspective of overall administrative reform. Fiscal crises in Japan due to the recession in the early 1990s required the central government to launch massive administrative reform efforts. For the most part, these encompass deregulation, the reorganization of central ministries and public corporations, and fiscal structural reform. While the reforms are targeted primarily on establishing more effective decision making authority for the Cabinet and a more viable economy under a balanced budget, the issue of decentralization also emerged. Related to this move are accountability and performance-based management.
First, the concept and framework of decentralization and accountability are explored, followed by a brief description of governmental feature. Second, a brief sketch of postwar administrative reform is given. Third, decentralization schemes at the central government level and autonomous reform efforts in local governments are depicted. Special attention is paid to emerging performance-based management. Finally, these reform strategies are evaluated, and the inherent nature of bureaucratic resilience in the life of Japan's public administration, as opposed to political authority is also discussed.