Tag - local-government

 
 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2014
A broader say in reactor restarts
As the Abe administration pushes to restart idled nuclear power plants that have cleared safety screening, the question of which local governments should also have a say in whether a plant may restart remains open.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Nov 12, 2014
Mayor blazes trail with radical child-friendly vision for local government
Every time I try to read or write about local government in Japan I get so easily distra— say, is that paint drying over there? You see the problem?!
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2014
Kagoshima assembly and governor green-light restart of Sendai reactors
The Sendai nuclear power plant is a step closer to becoming the first in Japan to resume generating electricity in the wake of the 2011 triple meltdown.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 29, 2014
Town hall meetings: Abandon logic, all ye who enter here
The first thing you want to do when you get to the meeting room, whether it be summer or winter, is open all the windows. This is because you'll have to throw all logic out the window. Open as many as possible, 'cause there's a lot of logic to heave.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2014
Local government gives OK to restart Sendai nuclear plant in Kagoshima Prefecture
The municipal assembly in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, voted Tuesday to approve the restart of the local nuclear power station, another step forward in the fraught process of reviving an industry left idled by the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 19, 2014
Government to set up fund to support regional health care businesses
The government plans to set up a fund to nurture healthcare businesses in rural areas in September at the earliest in an effort to revitalize the regional economy, according to the outline of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's related measures compiled as of Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 21, 2014
Chores, charges and chin-wags: the chōnaikai ties that bind
Perhaps fearing that the entire council could fall apart, some neighborhood associations resort to drastic measures to keep members active and in line. The culture clash is not foreigner vs. Japanese, but traditional vs. modern.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2014
Ex-mayor of nation's nuclear birthplace comes out swinging against atomic power
The former mayor of a village that had a pioneering role in the nation's nuclear development expresses his opposition to the country continuing to look to nuclear power as an energy source.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 24, 2014
Ex-bureaucrat wins Yamaguchi race
Former bureaucrat Tsugumasa Muraoka on Sunday won the Yamaguchi gubernatorial election by defeating two candidates to succeed Gov. Shigetaro Yamamoto, who resigned due to illness.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2014
China's credit boom raises flags on risk levels
The growth of credit in China at a breakneck pace, including the spike in local-government debt by 70 percent since 2009, is raising serious concerns about the level of risk in China's financial system.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2014
Hashimoto's costly comeback bid vexes voters
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's surprise resignation and second mayoral bid is greeted with criticism and concern in the city and prefecture.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2013
Misguided focus on test results
Reversing its traditional position, the education ministry has decided to let municipal boards of education publicize the results for individual schools in the achievement tests taken by sixth and ninth graders nationwide. An even worse obsession with test scores could follow.
EDITORIALS
Dec 14, 2013
A fair division of tax revenues
The central government should try to work out a permanent system of distributing prefectural corporate taxes to local governments that will help stabilize local revenue and decentralize administrations.
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2013
Housing help for evacuees
The central and local governments must be ready to help both evacuees who want to return home and those who want to settle in new places.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 18, 2013
Democracy, interrupted: How local voices were silenced in Tokyo's first referendum
On Sunday, May 26, something quite remarkable happened in Kodaira city, western Tokyo: Over 50,000 citizens voted in Tokyo's very first local referendum (jūmin tōhyō) on the issue of whether a 50-year-old plan to construct a road should be reviewed or not.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2007
Long road to rehabilitation
The announcement last June by Yubari, Hokkaido, a former coal-mining town now known for the Yubari brand of melon, that it had effectively gone bankrupt sent shock waves throughout the nation because many cities, towns and villages face a similar financial crisis. The city has adopted, and the government has accepted, a financial reconstruction plan to pay off accumulated debts of 35.3 billion yen over 18 years starting in fiscal 2007.

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan