More than a quarter of Japanese municipalities have expressed concerns about potential problems resulting from an anticipated surge in the number of visitors to the country from overseas, a survey showed Sunday. While the central government has seen the tourism boom in recent years as ...
Local governments in Japan prepare to accept more foreign workers
As the Diet plans to start substantive deliberations on a bill to expand acceptance of foreign labor, local governments are beginning to prepare for the expected influx of foreign workers. Addressing labor shortages is a pressing matter for local governments. The Chiba Prefectural Government, which is ...
Japan enlists private-sector firms in campaign to tame ballooning health care costs
Japan's public sector is turning to the private sector to help slow the rapid growth in the nation's health care spending. Faced with a rapidly graying population that's projected to push up heath care spending by more than 50 percent in the decade through 2025, ...
This is the 70th year since the concept of local autonomy was introduced in Japan under the Constitution. Both the national and local governments should be reminded that local autonomy is an important and essential heritage of the postwar political and legal transformation. Serious ...
Mayors and governors questioned Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's dissolution of the House of Representatives on Friday, noting that the move will hamper the government's ability to address other urgent issues, such as the need to prop up regional economies and rebuild disaster-hit areas. "Now is ...
With poll numbers falling, Abe turns to suffering local economies
As his polling numbers dive, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe turns his attention and bluster to the nation's rural economies, vowing to work his "Abenomics" magic outside Tokyo.
Governors tell Abe to get real on fixing economy — outside Tokyo
A long-sought response from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is finally listening to the problems faced by the other Japan — the one outside Tokyo — or a cynical attempt to rally the Liberal Democratic Party before key local elections next April? Whatever the answer, ...
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.
Aging public facilities present a growing problem for cash-strapped local and prefectural governments.
Outlays to bolster regional economies will be slashed by 40 percent in the fiscal 2014 budget even as state spending swells to a record-high ¥95.88 trillion.
As the Upper House election nears, some political parties propose setting up several administrative regions for Japan and abolishing prefectural governments.
'Abenomics' dark side: hinterland pay cuts
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cuts to local-government subsidies are like trying to "wring water from an old rag that's been squeezed dry," says Kazuya Yoshida, a 27-year municipal employee in Shijonawate, Osaka Prefecture. Abe pared payments to regional authorities by ¥392 billion, or 2.3 percent, ...
