This year will be an important one for pushing devolution. Increasing the power of local governments was one of the Democratic Party of Japan's campaign promises. Its election manifesto calls for abolishing conditional subsidies to local governments, eliminating in principle the regional bureaus of government ministries, and relieving local governments of the obligation to shoulder part of the cost of public works projects carried out by the central government.
The Hatoyama administration appears to be on its way toward fulfilling this promise. It has established a "local sovereignty strategy conference," chaired by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and including concerned Cabinet members and experts from the private sector. A government panel on devolution established under the government of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito handed its last recommendations to Mr. Hatoyama in November, ending its activities.
In accordance with requests from six organizations representing local governments and assemblies, including the associations of prefectural governors and city mayors and the associations of chairpersons of prefectural and city assemblies, the administration will submit a bill to the Diet to give legal footing to a conference at which leaders of the central and local governments will exchange views on policy matters.