Slogans submitted by the public and designed to promote the proposed "doshusei" reorganization of the local administrative system were unveiled Thursday by the Keizai Koho Center, a public relations arm of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren).
Keidanren Chairman Fujio Mitarai, who also serves as head of the center, presented awards to the winners.
First prize among the 2,233 applicants nationwide went to Tomoko Serizawa, 33, from Tokyo, whose work said the proposed system should "turn the difference of each region into its attractiveness."
During the awards ceremony, Mitarai said the proposed system would allow each region to revitalize its economy based on its own initiatives, and thereby strengthen the nation as a whole.
The system aims to reorganize the 47 prefectures into broader regional bodies and transfer to them more of the central government's administrative powers.
