NEWSWORTHY
Government adopts bill to limit value of gifts in Japan hometown tax donation system
In order to cool down heated competition among local governments seeking to attract donations with offers of expensive gifts for benefactors, the government Friday adopted a bill to overhaul the furusato nōzei hometown tax donation system. The amendment to the law on local taxation calls ...
Hyogo mayor who called senior official 'stupid' over stalled evictions to make way for road quits
A Hyogo Prefecture mayor submitted a letter of resignation Friday after facing criticism for calling a senior city official "stupid" and suggesting he "burn down" a local building that stood in the way a road project, officials said. "I apologize again for what happened. I ...
Demographic pressure is reaching crisis proportions in communities across Japan. It's time to act.
City hall in Gifu Prefecture is first in Japan to deploy autonomous robots to aid residents
At its city hall on Tuesday, a local government in central Japan demonstrated an experiment showing robots that can independently guide people to the right information window or teach them how to fill out government forms. Ogaki city in Gifu Prefecture is the first local ...
Saga governor backed by Japan's ruling coalition handily beats JCP-backed challenger
Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi was elected to a second four-year term Sunday, defeating his sole contender. Yamaguchi, a 53-year-old independent supported by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition, beat Masato Imada, a 72-year-old independent backed by the Japanese Communist Party. Yamaguchi collected 199,670 votes, against 36,174 ...
Hokkaido ski resort town of Kutchan to enact Japan's first fixed-rate lodging tax
The town of Kutchan, located near Hokkaido's popular Niseko ski resort, plans to introduce a 2 percent lodging tax under an ordinance passed by the municipal assembly Thursday. The town aims to enact the tax next November following consultations with the Ministry of Internal Affairs ...
Can five Little Japans defuse one big demographic time bomb?
What about if Japan split into a confederation of five semi-autonomous "regions," each delineated roughly by geography and population?
Bolivian-born Noemi Inoue felt it was necessary to naturalize to feel fully integrated in Japanese society and to become the first non-Japan-born person to serve as a city councilor in Tokyo's Sumida Ward.
Owing to depopulation, small towns across Japan need to find new ways to maintain representative government.
U.K. plan to make social housing tenants 'pay to stay' won't meet aim: report
Britain's "pay to stay" rule requiring social housing tenants to pay higher rents may leave local councils worse off, cause stress for families and fail to generate expected revenues for the central government, according to a report published Monday. The plans will force higher rents ...
Lessons in history and bureaucracy lurk within Japan's geographical layer cake
Although in English we say Japan has 47 prefectures, Japanese uses four terms to express the same concept. And that's just for starters.
Mayor blazes trail with radical child-friendly vision for local government
Whether seeking to guarantee child visitation for divorced parents or challenging the family registry system, lawyer-mayor Fusaho Izumi pushes the envelope.
