Up-to-date Documents on Local Autonomy in Japan No.6

New Policies in Wide-area Administration in Japan

Kiyotaka YOKOMICHI
Professor
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR)
Institute for Comparative Studies in Local Governance (COSLOG)
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)Except where permitted by the Copyright Law for “personal use” or “quotation” purposes, no partof this booklet may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission. Any
quotation from this booklet requires indication of the source.

Contact
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Institute for Comparative Studies in Local Governance (COSLOG)
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)
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Foreword
The Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) and the National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) have been working since FY 2005 on a “Project on theoverseas dissemination of information on the local governance system of Japan and its operation”.
On the basis of the recognition that the dissemination to overseas countries of information on theJapanese local governance system and its operation was insufficient, the objective of this project was
defined as the pursuit of comparative studies on local governance by means of compiling in foreign
languages materials on the Japanese local governance system and its implementation as well as byaccumulating literature and reference materials on local governance in Japan and foreign countries.
In FY 2009, we continued to compile “Statistics on Local Governance (Japanese/English)”,“Up-to-date Documents on Local Autonomy in Japan”, “Papers on the Local Governance System
and its Implementation in Selected Fields in Japan” and “Historic Development of Japanese Local
Governance”. We also continued to conduct a search for literature and reference materials concernedwith local governance in Japan and overseas to be stored in the Institute for Comparative Studies in
Local Governance (COSLOG).
If you have any comments, suggestions or inquiries regarding our project, please feel free tocontact the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) or the Institute forComparative Studies in Local Governance (COSLOG) of the National Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS).

February 2010
Michihiro Kayama
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR)
Tatsuo Hatta
President
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

PrefaceThis booklet is one of the results of research activities conducted by the Institute for Comparative
Studies in Local Governance (COSLOG) in FY 2009 as one part of a project that started in FY 2005
entitled “Project on the overseas dissemination of information on the local governance system ofJapan and its operation”, in cooperation with the Council of Local Authorities for International
Relations (CLAIR). For the purpose of implementing this project, a “Research committee for the
project on the overseas dissemination of information on the local governance system of Japan and its
operation” has been set up, and a chief and deputy chiefs with responsibility for the project havebeen designated from among the members concerned with each research subject.
“Up-to-date Documents on Local Autonomy in Japan" (2009、Volumes 6,7) were written under the
responsibility of the following two members:（Chief）
Kiyotaka Yokomichi, Professor of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Yoshihiko Kawato, Associate Professor of Takasaki City University of Economics
This booklet, the 6th Volume in the series, was written on the subject of new policies inwide-area administration in Japan.

In Japan, the Great Heisei Consolidation, which has been proceeding since 1999, will cometo an end in March 2010, and the time is approaching when once again, emphasis will be put
on wide-area administration in the form of administrative cooperation and liaison among
municipalities. This booklet aims to serve as an introduction to wide-area administration in
Japan, including the system and ways in which related issues have been tackled up to now aswell as recent trends.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Professor Yokomichi, and also to othermembers of the research committee for their opinions and advice. Furthermore, I would like tothank Mr. Maurice Jenkins for his English translation
February 2010
Hiroshi Ikawa
Chairperson
Research committee for the project on the overseas dissemination of informationon the local governance system of Japan and its operation
Professor
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

New Policies in Wide-area Administration in Japan
Kiyotaka YOKOMICHI
Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

Introduction
It has been the case in Japan, ever since the formation of a modern nation-state as a result of the
Meiji Restoration, that as a concomitant part of the process of socio-economic development and therise in administrative standards, there has been a quantitative increase in the work undertaken bymunicipalities (cities, towns and villages) as local autonomous bodies, which have also become
increasingly sophisticated in a qualitative sense. We can also see how municipalities have been
formed with a view to responding to these changes, and how mergers and consolidations have been
repeated at different times. Specifically, it is usual to refer to the Great Meiji Consolidation(18888-1889), the Great Showa Consolidation (1953-1961), and the Great Heisei Consolidation(1999-2010). Through these consolidations, the cities, towns and villages involved aimed tostrengthen their financial base and raise their level of administrative ability1.
Fundamentally, the method of merging municipalities has been one of discarding the old units andforming larger-scale units, and as a result, the quantity of the duties undertaken by municipalities has
increased, and they have been able to respond to demands in increasingly sophisticated ways.
However, the responses shown by municipalities toward mergers have not followed a single uniquepattern. There have also been cases where the units (cities, towns and villages) have stayed as theywere, and the method of responding to the demands has been to construct a system of co-operation
linking the various individual units. This has been termed “wide-area administration”.
As already mentioned, it is fundamentally by the use of mergers that municipalities have
responded to a quantitative increase in duties and an increasingly sophisticated environment.
However, in the intervals between the three great consolidations already referred to, wide-areaadministration has been developed2. It should also be noted that as the Great Heisei Consolidation
draws to its close in March 2010, municipalities must re-engage with a process of wide-areaadministration.
It is with this process of wide-area administration within the municipalities of Japan that thispaper will concern itself. Chapter 1 will explain the significance of wide-area administration.
Chapter 2 will explain the system of wide-area administration (cooperatives) prior to World War II.
Chapter 3 will focus primarily on newly introduced systems, explaining the wide-area administration
systems introduced after World War II (councils, joint establishment of organs, delegation of duties,etc.). Chapter 4 will look at the pattern of activities within municipalities that have adopted
wide-area administration. Chapter 5 will provide a detailed explanation and commentary on the
wide-area administration zones (particularly wide-area municipal zones) that constituted the primary
focus of wide-area administration activities in the 40 years following the Great Showa Consolidation.
Chapter 6 will explain the “autonomous settlement zones” with which wide-area administrations iscoming to grips as the Great Heisei Consolidation draws to its close. And finally, Chapter 7 will
explain the direction that wide-area administration will follow in the years to come.
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1 The significance of wide-area administration“Wide-area administration” includes the wide-area administration of a prefecture as a wide-areaautonomous body, but within the framework of this paper, the concept taken up is that of thewide-area administration of municipalities (cities, towns and villages), constituting the basic units oflocal autonomy. It follows that the scope of wide-area administration exceeds the scope of a single
municipality and focuses on providing services to residents through a process of co-operation among
several municipalities.
In terms of the methods of implementing wide-area administration, these can be divided into 2
kinds. There is the method whereby an organization or a corporate person is especially constructedto carry out the implementation, and there is the method whereby no such organization or corporate
person is constructed.
A further division into 2 categories can also be made. On the one hand, there is the concept that
goes no further than administering duties on a shared basis. On the other hand, there is the concept
whereby the combined area of the participating municipalities is considered as one zone andbecomes the object of comprehensive planning, and on this basis, projects are realized andinfrastructure within the zone is taken forward on a planned basis.
2 The wide-area administration system prior to World War II
2.1 The introduction of a comprehensive system
The beginning of the early modern system of local autonomy in Japan can be dated at 1888, when
the Municipal Law (City Law, Town and Village Law) was established. A regulation was set up
whereby several towns and villages could establish a town and village cooperative to deal with theirduties on a shared basis (Town and Village Law, Article 116, Clause 1). Furthermore, it was also
stipulated (ibid, Clause 2) that in the case of towns and villages which did not have the funds
required to create a burden bearing a legal obligation, it is possible for them, at times when a merger
conference cannot be set up or when there are circumstances that make a merger inconvenient, tocreate a “town and village cooperative” by means of a resolution passed by the county representative
assembly3.
With regard to the reasons underlying the establishment of a town and village cooperative ,reference can be made to the following extract from “Reasons for the Creation of the Municipal
Law ”, which explains the fundamental rationale underlying the establishment of this law:
“If at the present time there are unavoidable circumstances which mean that a full merger cannot berealized, or if a merger is inconvenient, there is a legal recourse to create a cooperative of towns andvillages in accordance with Article 116 of the Town and Village Law”
From 1888 to 1889, the Great Meiji Consolidation was taken forward, preceding theimplementation of the Municipal Law. It may, however, be presumed that alternative procedures fora merger were provided for towns and villages which found it difficult to proceed with a merger
within the framework of this consolidation.

2

2.2 Applied expansion of the cooperative system
The Municipal Law underwent total reform in 1911, and at this time, it became possible for thecooperative system to be applied to cities as well as to towns and villages. Specifically, in order thatmunicipalities could arrange for a part of their duties to be dealt with on a shared basis, enabling
cities to become members of the cooperative system (City Law Article 149, Clause 1).
The resulting “partial-affairs association”, as the concrete expression of the formula for sharing
part of the duties of municipalities was known, was acknowledged to be an effective method of
demonstrating administrative efficiency, and this is the reason why it was decided to apply it to cities
as well as towns and villages.
On the other hand, given the assumption of the state of affairs in which, within the Town andVillage Law, only a town and village created a “partial-affairs association”, the same kind of
regulation was established (Town and Village Law, Article 129, Clause 1), and in the event of
non-occurrence in a city, but occurrence as a special necessity in a town or village, it was madepossible for all the duties of the towns and villages concerned to be dealt with on a shared basis by
the creation of a town and village cooperative (ibid, Clause 2).
The body thus created, which dealt with all the duties of towns and villages on a shared basis, was
known as a “full cooperative”. In practice, the effects of this are no different from those of a merger,
and the term was simply taken over as an expedient in place of the term “merger” from the former
Municipal Law4.
2.3 The characteristics of a cooperative
A cooperative was specified as a kind of local autonomous body, i.e. a “complex localorganization”; it had corporate status, had jurisdiction over the total land area covered by theconstituent cities, towns and villages, regarded the cities, towns and villages that participated in it,
and not the residents who lived therein, as its constituent organs, and had the function of dealing
with the duties of the said organs on a shared basis5. Also determined in the articles of thecooperative were matters concerned with the structure of the assembly required to operate it and theelection of the assembly members, the organization and the appointment of the staff of thecooperative, and the methods of paying expenses.

3 The system of wide-area administration after World War II
3.1 The successor to the cooperative system
In 1947, the Municipal Law was abolished, and the Local Autonomy Law was enacted afresh, but
the cooperative system, dating from the days of the Municipal Law, was taken over into the Local
Autonomy Law.
The Local Autonomy Law located a cooperative within the category of one kind of “special local
public body”, and stipulated (ibid, Article 284, Clause 1) that not only cities, towns and villages, butalso prefectures, could establish a “partial-affairs association”. Furthermore, with reference to towns
and villages, it was also stipulated that in addition to the hitherto existing “full cooperative”, a “joint
office cooperative”, dealing only with all affairs of the public office, could also be established (ibid,
Clause 3).
3

3.2 Creation of a simplified wide-area administration system
According to the 1952 revision of the Local Autonomy Law, 3 categories were created asframeworks for the new wide-area administration systems, namely councils, the joint establishmentof organs as well as staff members, and delegated duties.
The new categories were introduced on the basis of the “Recommendations concerning there-allocation of administrative duties” (the so-called Kambe Recommendations), issued by the Local
Administrative Investigation Committee on December 22, 1950. The said recommendations stated
the following: “With regard to administration of a part of simple duties, a cooperative executive andassembly are stipulated as required organs, and with this in mind, the question is whether or not,from the standpoint of economizing on expenditure as well as of improving on the efficiency of
carrying out required duties, the most appropriate formula is indeed the cooperative system on ashared basis with other local public bodies”. It was expected that even if management operations
were carried out on a shared basis, the formula created would not require complex structures.
(1) Councils
It was stipulated that councils of local public bodies acting on a shared basis, could beestablished. Initially, 2 categories of councils were designated: one category comprised“implementation management councils”, which aimed to implement and manage the part of duties
shared in common, and the other category comprised “liaison and adjustment councils”, which
aimed to carry out liaison and adjustment activities in respect of the implementation andmanagement of duties6. Subsequently, as a result of the revision to the Local Autonomy Law of1961, a “planning formulation council” was added with the aim of facilitating the joint
formulation of comprehensive planning covering a wide geographical area (Local Autonomy Law,
Article 252-2, Clause 2, Item 1).
Councils have the character of common implementation organs established jointly by a numberof local public bodies, and do not have the status of corporate bodies. Furthermore, because
councils do not have their own employees, their duties are carried out by the employees of theparticipating local public bodies.
When implementation or management of a duty is carried out by a council in the name of thelocal public bodies that constitute the council or as their executive organ, the effect will be as if
the local public bodies had carried out the implementation or management directly.
It wais also stipulated that in a case where a “planning formulation council” drew up acomprehensive wide-area plan, the participating local public bodies must carry out the duties
resulting from that plan.
(2) Joint establishment of organs and staff
A local public body, acting jointly with other public bodies, is able to establish organs(committees, or attached organs) on a joint basis, and is also able to establish shared employees toassist the chief executive officers, or committees, with the execution of their duties (Local
Autonomy Law, Article 252-7).
Jointly established organs have the character of organs which are common to the local publicbodies concerned, and the effect of actions committed by the said organs is that they are attributed
to the various local public bodies.
4

Furthermore, the member units of the jointly established organs are regarded as employees of
one or other of the local public bodies concerned, and employees of the local public body to which
they belong provide assistance with the duties of the jointly established organ.
(3) Delegation of Duties
It was stipulated that a local public body could delegate a part of its duties to another local
public body, and enable the executing organ of the local public body to which duties weredelegated to implement and manage the duties (Local Autonomy Law, Article 252-14).
As a result of delegating duties in this way, the local public body that has entrusted the duties
loses authority over the duties so delegated. On the other hand, the local public body entrustedwith the duties gains the authority to administer the duties, within the scope of what has beendelegated, as if they were its own duties.
(4) Comparison of various systems with that of cooperatives
Cooperatives are bodies with corporate status (special local public bodies) separately
established to deal with wide-area administration, while in contrast to these, councils were
specially created to deal with wide-area administration but without having corporate status.
Different from cooperatives, councils also have no assemblies. In the case of the joint
establishment of organs, without any need to separately establish a new organization, each local
public body implements wide-area administration by combining organizations that already exist
within itself. And in the case of delegating duties, there is no creation of an organization to deal
with duties on a joint basis; instead, wide-area administration is implemented by the procedure of
one local public body handing over a part of its duties to another public body. In every one of thecases enumerated here, the procedures used are simple and easy compared to the system ofcooperatives.
3.3 The creation of local development corporations
Through the revision of the Local Autonomy Law carried out in 1963, the system of local
development corporations was established (Local Autonomy Law, Article 298).
The background to this is that in the 1960s, the promotion of regional development became amajor policy issue, and local public bodies, acting in union, joined together to introduce local
development corporations as a new device to handle large-scale projects.
More specifically, in order that a local public body, acting in concert with other local public bodies,
can implement, on the basis of a comprehensive plan, such matters as water supplies and roads forhousing, factories, and the like, it was stipulated that the local public bodies concerned could
establish a local development corporation, to which the tasks enumerated here should be entrusted.
A local development corporation thus created has corporate status, and is designated as one kindof “special local public body”.
3.4 Expansion of the cooperative system(1) Complex partial-affairs associations
Under the revision of the Local Autonomy Law carried out in 1974, a system of “complex
partial-affairs associations”, representing an expansion of the system of partial-affairs associations,5was created (Local Autonomy Law, Article 285).
There was no restriction to the partial-affairs associations that had existed hitherto
administering multiple duties, when this was necessary because the duties were common to all themunicipalities that comprised the association. However, it was stipulated that in the case ofcomplex partial-affairs associations, it was not a necessary requirement that the duties werecommon to all the municipalities that comprised the association.
Complex partial-affairs associations as described here are a kind of special variant ofpartial-affairs associations, but are not formally acknowledged in prefectures. These organs are
created with the aim of promoting wide-area administration more effectively at municipal level,
and as a result of their establishment, it has become possible to integrate and rationalize
partial-affairs associations.
(2) Wide-area unions
Within the framework of a 1994 revision to the Local Autonomy Law, “wide-area unions” were
established as a new variation on corporations (Local Autonomy Law, Article 284, Clause 3).
If we look in more detail at why wide-area unions are deemed appropriate devices for disposingof matters covering a wide area, the answer is that firstly, they can draw up comprehensive plansin relation to a wide area (wide-area plans), can carry out all liaison and adjustment tasks
necessary to implement these wide-area plans, and can implement a part of the plans over a wide
area in a planned and comprehensive way.
(3) Connections with wide-area administration
Summing up the main points of the different kinds of bodies referred to here, complex
partial-affairs associations are bodies which aim to take wide-area administration forward fromthe perspective of handling the shared implementation of duties more efficiently. On the other
hand, wide-area unions aim to take wide-area administration forward from the perspective of thecomprehensive and planned implementation of projects based on wide-area plans which they havedrawn up.
In either case, they represented a reform of the system that was deeply connected with thepromotion of wide-area zones, which form the subject-matter of Chapter 5 of this paper.

4 The present state of wide-area administration at municipal level
4.1 The different kinds of wide-area administration systems
A diagrammatic summary of the different systems of wide-area administration described in theprevious chapter can be found in Table 1.

6

(Table 1)

Kinds of wide-area administration systems

Names of systems

Overview of systems

Partial-affairs
association

The term denotes a special kind of local public organization
established to jointly administer the duties of a number of local
public bodies. A variation of this is a complex partial-affairs
association.

Wide-area union

The term denotes a special kind of local public organization
established to administer duties which are felt to be more
appropriately dealt with over a wide area. Duties can bedelegated to them directly by the central government or by
prefectures.

Requiring theestablishmentof a corporate Full cooperative
personA special kind of local public organization established toadminister in common all the duties of a number ofTowns/Villages. This is in practice no different from a merger.

Joint officecooperative

A special kind of local public organization established toadminister in common all the duties that pertain to theimplementing organ of a town or village

Local development
corporation

A special kind of local public organization established by anumber of local public bodies to administer in a comprehensive
and integrated way construction projects that constitute thecornerstone of local development. The jointly administered
duties are limited to construction work on public facilities or to
the acquisition or development of land connected to such work.

CouncilA system established jointly by a number of local public bodies
for carrying out joint administration or implementation, liaison
and adjustment, or the preparation of plans

Not requiring
theestablishment Joint establishment ofof a corporate organs, etc.
personDelegation of duties

A system established jointly by a number of local public bodies,taking such forms as a committee, committee members, or
attached organs.
A system whereby one local public body delegates theadministration and implementation of part of its duties toanother local public bodyNote: Partially adopted from the MIC document, "Application of the current devices for the joint implementationof duties (overview)".

In all, there is a total of 8 different kinds of systems, and they can be broadly divided according towhether or not they have corporate legal status.
Taking firstly those organs or bodies that do required corporate legal status, we have 5 kinds,
namely partial-affairs associations (including complex partial-affairs associations), wide-area unions,full cooperatives, joint office cooperatives, and local development corporations. In every one ofthese cases, the resulting body is designated as a “special local public body” under the Local
Autonomy Law.
On the other hand, there are three simpler types of systems without corporate legal status, namely
councils, the joint establishment of organs and staff, and the delegation of duties.
4.2 Utilizing the wide-area administration system
According to the “Survey of the present state of the joint administration of duties by local publicbodies” (as of July 1, 2008), issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, thepresent situation regarding the use of the wide-area administration system in local public bodies

7

(including prefectures) is shown in Table 2.
Of the 8 kinds of wide-area administration systems listed above, the full cooperative system has
not been utilized since 1957, while the joint office cooperative system has not been utilized since1960. It follows that in terms of actual practice, these 2 systems can be excluded from those utilized,
leaving a total of 6 kinds of systems in use.
(Table 2) Present state of wide-area administration (as of July 1, 2008)
Constituent
organization
by typeJointadministration
formula1 Partial-affairs
association

Organization within 1
prefecture

Organization covering 2 or more prefectures
Prefecture
andprefecture

Prefectureandmunicipality

Municipality
andmunicipality

Prefectureandmunicipality

Municipality
andmunicipality

A

B

C

D

E

2

Municipality
andmunicipality

Total

B＋D

C＋E

A+B+C+D+E

39

1,608

39

1,623

1,664(22.0)

2 Wide-area union

3

108

3

108

111(1.5)

3 Localdevelopment
corporation

1

4 Council

1

15

Prefectureandmunicipality

4

5 Joint
establishment oforgans, etc.
6 Delegation ofdutiesTotal

1

1(0.0)

1

5

273

9

274

284(3.7)

1

1

405

1

406

407(5.4)

33

57

829

1,662

2,528

1,719

3,357

5,109(67.4)

36(0.5)61(0.8)846(11.2)

1,711(22.6)

4,922(65.0)

1,772(23.4)

5,768(76.1)

7,576

Note: Partially adapted from the MIC document, "Present situation by jointly administered constituent bodies", (asof July 1, 2008). The figures in brackets are percentages (%).

As of July 1, 2008, there was a total of 7,576 cases using wide-area administration systems. Of
these, at prefectural level, there was a total of 36 cases (Table 2A) of duties being administered on ashared basis, no more than 0.5% of the total. The total of prefectures disposing of duties on a sharedbasis with municipalities (Table 2, B+D) was 1,772 cases, 23.4% of the total. For the rest, cases ofmunicipalities sharing duties among themselves (Table 2, C+E) numbered 5,776 cases in all (themost numerous), representing 76.1% of the total. It is clear from these figures that the utilization ofwide-area administration systems is most commonly found among municipalities.
With regard to the kind of system used, “delegated duties” with 5,109 cases, 67.4% of the total, isthe kind of system most commonly found. The second most frequently found type of system is thatof partial-affairs associations, with 1,664 cases, 22.0% of the total. Furthermore, within this total are
148 bodies which use complex partial-affairs associations as specified in Article 285 of the Local
Autonomy Law. Ranking third in terms of frequency of occurrence is the joint establishment oforgans, with 407 cases (5.4% of the total), fourth is councils, with 284 cases (3.8% of the total), andfifth is wide-area unions, with 111 cases (1.5% of the total). Only one case was found of local
development corporations, making this a type that is hardly ever utilized.
Looking more closely at the characteristics of delegated duties, the most commonly utilized type,8

a very large number, 1,719 cases, consisted of duties shared between prefectures and municipalities.
This large number results from the fact that many municipalities entrusted the duties of equity
committees to prefectural personnel committees. Specifically, such cases numbered 1,179,
comprising 22.9% of the total of delegated duties. Among delegated duties dealt with in common bymunicipalities, the most frequently occurring type was that of the issuance of copies of certificates ofresidence, totaling 936 cases, followed by duties concerned with speedboat racing, numbering 809
cases, duties concerned with the environment and public hygiene, such as garbage and sewage
disposal, numbering 414 cases, and duties concerned with disaster protection, such as cases of fire,
numbering 325 cases.
Turning to partial-affairs associations, the most frequently occurring type of duties administered incommon is that of garbage disposal, numbering 422 cases (25.4% of the total), followed by sewage
disposal, with 386 cases, fire fighting with 297 cases, ambulance service with 295 cases, andcremation with 233 cases.
If we look at the progression of partial-affairs associations over time, we find a steady growthfrom the late 1960s through the early 1970s, accompanying the increase in wide-area administration(joint disposal of duties) in the areas of garbage and sewage disposal and fire services. In 1967, there
were 2,202 such bodies, and this increased to a peak of 3,039 in 1974. However, subsequent to thispoint, as a result of the shift toward wide-area unions and the process of integration in terms of theutilization of complex partial-affairs associations, the number took a decreasing trend, falling to
2,770 in 1998. And then, accompanying the Great Heisei Consolidation, which began in 1999, thenumber decreased significantly, dropping to 1,664 in 2008, at the time of this survey.
Turning to the joint establishment of organs, the largest number of cases was in the area of nursing
care insurance certification investigation duties (nursing care certification investigation conference)on the basis of the Nursing Care Insurance Law. The number of cases totaled 142, or 34.9% of thetotal. This was followed by duties concerning equity committees, numbering 114 cases, and, in
decreasing order of frequency, by duties concerning the certification and investigation of disability
classifications on the basis of the Law concerning Services and Support for Persons with Disabilities,
numbering 103 cases in total.
Turning next to councils, the largest number of cases was concerned with local development
planning policy; in this area there were 122 cases, representing 43.0% of the total. This was followed,
in decreasing order, by cases concerned with education matters, numbering 878 cases.
Turning finally to wide-area unions, after the first case applying this concept occurred in 1996, thenumber increased in 2000 on the occasion of the introduction of the nursing care insurance system.
In addition to this, the result of further additions preceding the implementation of the medical
insurance system for the advanced elderly in 2008 was that up to 2008, when this survey was carriedout, a total of 111 local bodies were using the concept of wide-area unions. It should be noted,
however, that while in theoretical terms, wide-area unions were introduced with the aim of achieving
the formulation of wide-area planning, and on this basis, the comprehensive and planned
implementation of projects, when it comes to the actual operation of the implementation process,there is hardly any difference between wide-area unions and partial-affairs associations.

95 The advance of wide-area administration zones
It was from the end of the 1960s that the promotion of wide-area administration in the form of thenation-wide promotion of wide-area administration zones (wide-area municipal zones as well aslarge city outer area administration zones) was identified as an objective.
This concept is not one of implementing wide-area administration so as to administer duties on ashared basis. It attempts rather to formulate a comprehensive plan which encompasses as one zone
the totality of all the municipalities (cities, towns and villages) within the geographical area
concerned.
5.1 The background to wide-area administration zones
From the late 1960s onwards, accompanying the advance of motorization, the geographical area
within which residents carried out activities in the course of their daily lives, including commuting to
the workplace or to an educational institution, shopping, and so on, expanded beyond the area of asingle municipality. Furthermore, along with the rise in income levels and the urbanization of daily
life, the administrative services which residents looked to municipalities to provide also expanded,
and at the same time, the qualitative level of the content became more sophisticated.
In addition to the above, in the New National Comprehensive Development Plan, which was the
subject of a Cabinet resolution of May 30, 1969, the concept of local development was advocated asa concept in terms of a unit comprising a wide-area daily life zone. Specifically, the plan said that theaim was “to restructure the entire land area of Japan by taking as primary zones broad livelihoodzones against the background of a society which is witnessing the development of motorization andother factors. Furthermore, the primary zones will be considered to be the basic units for regional
development, and autonomous regional development plans will be drawn up on the basis of theparticular characteristic of each individual primary zone.”
5.2 The beginning of wide-area administration zones
The concept of wide-area administration zones began with a reference in a report issued on August27, 1968, by the 12th Local Government System Research Council, entitled “An interim reportconcerning administrative and financial policies aimed at responding to changes in local
administration that have accompanied changes in the socio-economic situation of recent years”.
Specifically, the report referred to the need “to confirm, as a policy for promoting regional society, aconcept which envisages cities destined to become core cities and the farming, mountain and fishingvillages on their periphery as a single unit”, and the need “to take forward wide-area administrative
systems that have resulted from the pattern whereby local public bodies deal with duties on a joint,shared basis.”
The Ministry of the Interior (now the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) tookreceipt of the report, and on May 28, 1969, issued “Guidelines for measures to promote wide-areamunicipal zones in fiscal 1969”, thus initiating on an experimental basis the policy of wide-areaadministration zones (wide-area municipal zones).
Subsequently, the thinking underlying the concept of wide-area livelihood zones was unveiled in
the New National Comprehensive Development Plan, and it was in this context that a summary of
the various ideas was made in the “Report concerning wide-area municipal zones as well as the10union of local public bodies”, issued on October 17, 1969 as the 13th report of the Local
Government System Research Council.
The main points of this report comprise the following 3 points7.
(1) The aim is to establish the everyday zones, within which residents carry on their daily lives
and which continue to expand to cover ever wider geographical areas, as wide-area municipal
zones. Further, by means of the joint administration of municipal services, the arrangement offacilities as well as the management of duties for such areas as roads, firefighting andambulance services, medical care, public hygiene and sanitation, education and culture, social
welfare, and the promotion of industry, can be taken forward on the basis of a wide-area
comprehensive plan, so that it will be possible to move closer to a solution of the many
problems that municipalities face, and to aim at the same time at the balanced development of
the whole of the land area of Japan.
(2) The idea of establishing, simply by means of mergers, a wide-area administrative systemcovering all municipal zones is difficult to envisage as an actual, real-life issue, and in
addition is not currently appropriate, so for the moment, utilization of the formula for the joint
administration of duties will be used alongside mergers with the aim of putting wide-areaadministration in place as a system.
(3) At the present time, it is appropriate to try and remedy inadequacies in the formula for the joint
administration of duties by improvements to the system, but it is also necessary to create newpatterns for the joint disposal of duties in such forms as special local public bodies termed“unions of local public bodies”.
On the basis of this report, the then Ministry of the Interior, with a view to perpetuating thethinking found in the 1969 Guidelines referred to above, issued on April 10, 1970, “Guidelines formeasures to promote wide-area municipal zones”. By doing this, the Ministry signaled a full-scale
start to the policy of creating wide-area municipal zones on the basis of the report.
5.3 The fundamental conception of wide-area municipal zones
The concept of a wide-area municipal zone is that of the establishment of a wide-area municipal
zone in the form of a unit comprising the everyday living activities of residents. In this wide-areazone, each newly established wide-area administrative organ formulates a wide-area municipal plan,
and aims to carry out the establishment of the infrastructure required in the zone in a comprehensive
and planned way on the basis of the said plan. The details of this fundamental device are as given
below8.
5.3.1 Setting up a wide-area municipal zone
The initial establishment of a wide-area municipal zone requires as a precondition that, broadly
speaking, the number of inhabitants exceeds 100,000, and that the geographical area concerned isdeemed to be able to cultivate, or to have the potential to cultivate, a zone of everyday social living(excluding large cities as well as peripheral areas deemed to have a character identical to them).
Given the existence of the above conditions, it was stipulated that the area should satisfy thefollowing specific conditions.
(1) The overall area of the zone, comprising both cities and surrounding farming, mountain or
11

fishing villages, should be able to satisfy almost all the standard demands of residents, in termsof employment opportunities, the provision of everyday living materials, medical care,education and culture, entertainment and other requirements of everyday social living.
(2) There should be, within the zone, urban areas (core city areas) which possess an accumulation ofurban facilities as well as functions which are sufficient to meet the normal demands ofresidents in the context of their everyday living activities.
(3) Transport and communication facilities and networks should be constructed so as to link the core
city areas with other urban areas as well as villages within the zone.
From a procedural point of view, it was stipulated that the establishment of a wide-area municipal
zone is to be carried out by a prefectural governor after consultation with the municipalities
concerned as well as with the Minister of the Interior. Furthermore, it must be considered that inprinciple, every one of the individual municipalities concerned belongs to a wide-area municipal
zone.
5.3.2 The creation of a wide-area administrative organ
It is stipulated that the municipalities belonging to a wide-area municipal zone shall as
administrative organs (wide-area administrative organ), with the aim of taking forward theinfrastructure and promotion of the zone, form a partial-affairs association in accordance with Article
284, Clause 1 of the Local Autonomy Law, or a council as specified in Article 252-2 Clause 1 of thesaid law.
The role of the wide-area administrative organ described here is to draw up a plan concerning thepromotion of the wide-area municipal zone (wide-area municipal zone plan), and addition to this,carry out liaison and coordination duties in connection with the implementation of the said plan.
Furthermore, with regard also to the implementation of duties based on the wide-area municipal
zone plan, it is stipulated as being desirable that these should be carried out by the wide-areaadministrative organ in a coordinated way. With this aim in mind, when the wide-area administrative
organ takes the form of a council, efforts should be made to abolish this and establish, as a wide-areaadministrative organ, a partial-affairs association.
5.3.3 Formulation of a wide-area municipal zone plan
It is stipulated that a wide-area administrative organ shall, on the basis of consultation with theprefecture within which it is located, formulate a wide-area municipal zone plan aimed at taking
forward, in a planned and comprehensive way, the planning and promotion of the said wide-areamunicipal zone.
The plan was to comprise the following fundamental concepts, fundamental plans, andimplementation plans.
(1) Fundamental concepts: a broad outline of a future vision of the promotion and development of
the geographical area covered by the wide-area municipal zone, as well as of the policies andmeasures required to realize this vision.
(2) Fundamental plans: the following items are to be determined on the basis of the fundamental
concepts:
the layout of the urban areas and villages as well as the proposed system of transport andcommunication networks, and alongside this, details of the devices necessary to administer the12required duties over a wide area and the methods of operating the said devices;
items concerned with the infrastructure in the form of facilities and equipment necessary to
implement the said items in concrete form.
(3) Implementation plans: specific, concrete details of what is required to implement the items
referred to in the fundamental plans.
5.4 The promotion of large city outer area administration zones
On August 10, 1977, the Ministry of the Interior issued “Guidelines for measures to promote thedevelopment of large city outer area administration zones”. The Guidelines focused specifically on
the development of the area constituting the periphery of large cities (large city peripheral region),seeing this as an integrated unit together with the large city concerned and not covered by thepreviously issued 1970 document. The aim was to promote wide-area administration comparable to
the wide-area municipal zones referred to above.
The basic characteristics of this concept are as follows9.
(1) Establishing the area of the zone
It is stipulated that in the same way as a wide-area municipal zone, a large city outer areaadministration zone shall be established by a prefectural governor on the basis of consultation
with the municipalities concerned and with the Minister of the Interior.
The specific establishment criteria were stipulated as follows:(a) the zone should have a population of, broadly speaking, around 400,000 people;(b) the zone should have geographical, historical or cultural characteristics that enable it to be seen
as a single unit;(c) it should have the necessary urban characteristics to enable a unified future vision to beenvisaged and realized;(d) one or other of the cities, towns and villages belonging to the wide-area municipal zone must be
excluded.
(2) Establishment of a wide-area administrative organ
A wide-area administrative organ for a large city outer area administration zone was the council
specified in Article 252-2, Clause 1 of the Local Autonomy Law. Both a partial-affairs
association and a council are recognized as organs that can exist within a wide-area municipal
zone, but it was specified that of the two kinds, a partial-affairs association was preferred as awide-area administrative organ. However, within a large city outer area administration zone, thesimpler and more convenient form of a council was judged to be the preferred type.
(3) Preparation of a promotion plan for the peripheral area of a large city
It was specified that a wide-area administrative organ that aimed to take forward the promotion
and development of the area of a zone in a unified and comprehensive manner should draw up a
promotion plan for the peripheral area of a large city. Furthermore, in the same way as the plan
for a wide-area municipal zone, the said plan should consist of fundamental concepts,
fundamental plans and implementation plans.

135.5 Subsequent developments regarding wide-area administration zones
On April 17, 1979, the Ministry of the Interior issued “Guidelines for deciding on a new wide-areamunicipal zone plan”. This had as its basis the “Concept of settled living” which was unveiled in the
Cabinet resolution endorsing the Third National Comprehensive Development Plan on November 4,
1977. The Guidelines required new plans to be formulated in the context of both wide-areamunicipal zones and large city outer area administration zones.
Furthermore, from fiscal 1980, the Ministry of the Interior promoted the establishment of garden
city core facilities (regional plazas) as models of core facilities which could serve as focal points forthe service provision for residents within a wide-area municipal zone. Subsequently, in 1984, theMinistry created the “Special countermeasures project for town development”, thereby beginning toprovide positive encouragement for local independent projects based on “town development projectplans”, which determined by the wide-area administrative organs of wide-area municipal zones.
The core concept of the Fourth National Comprehensive Development Plan, endorsed by the
Cabinet decision of June 30, 1987, was the “Formation of a multi-polar land structure”. For its part,the Ministry of the Interior took receipt of the plan, and issued a document entitled “Concerning thedevelopment of wide-area municipal zone policies in fiscal 1989”on June 23, 1989. On March 29,
1991, the Ministry also issued a further document entitled “The future promotion of wide-areaadministration zones”, which expanded on and aimed to perpetuate the content of the document
previously referred to.
According to this notice of 1991, both wide-area municipal zones and large city outer areaadministration zones were subsumed under the generic title of wide-area administration zones. With
the further aim of advancing the construction of a system of wide-area administrative organs which
would be able to assume the role of the main driving agent in the construction of wide-area regions,
it was urged that where councils constituted the wide-area administrative organs under current
arrangements, they should shift to being partial-affairs associations, while on the other hand, existing
partial-affairs associations should shift to being complex partial-affairs associations.
Moreover, within the framework of the document of June 23, 1989, referred to above, the Ministryof the Interior set out “Guidelines for the advancement of hometown municipal zones in fiscal 1989”,
thereby initiating the policy of hometown municipal zones.
In principle, under this policy, one wide-area municipal zone would be designated as a “hometown
municipal zone” within each prefecture, and in each such zone, a hometown municipal zone fundwould be created to the extent of about 1 billion yen, and the operating profits generated by the fundwould be utilized to carry out various kinds of soft-side projects.
Subsequently, on April 21, 1999, the Ministry of the Interior issued “Guidelines for the promotionof hometown municipal zones” as a separate document, and carried out various revisions, including
extension of the said fund to wide-area municipal zones on the periphery of large cities, thereby
continuing the hometown municipal zone policy.
On March 31, 1998, the Fifth Comprehensive National Development Plan, entitled “Grand Designfor the 21st Century” was endorsed by the Cabinet. Within the overall plan, the concept of the“Creation of nature-rich development areas” was identified, and it was on the basis of the thinking
underlying this concept that on March 31, 2000, the Ministry of the Interior issued “Concerning
14

guidelines for wide-area administration zone planning”. This document annulled all previous
communications concerned with the promotion of wide-area administration zones, and represented
new “Guidelines for the planning of wide-area administration zones”.
Specifically, with regard to the establishment of such zones, this new policy issued in 2000
followed the same pattern as in the past to the extent that zones would be established by theprefectural governor on the basis of consultation with the municipalities concerned, but on thisoccasion it was newly stipulated that consultation with the Minister of the Interior was not required.
Moreover, wide-area administrative organs were able to decide on wide-area administration zone
plans as in the past, but it was stipulated that consultation with prefectures was unnecessary, andinstead it was urged that their opinion should be sought. Both of these changes occurred after the
implementation of the Omnibus Decentralization Law, and reflect the fact that in the absence of thelegal base, local public bodies were no longer in a position to carry out consultations.
In addition to the above, in the new Guidelines, partial-affairs associations, wide-area unions, andcouncils were specified under this generic name of wide-area administrative organs. Moreover, inthe case where a wide-area administrative organ took the form of a council, it was urged that itshould seek to change its status to that of a partial-affairs association or a wide-area union, and at thesame time, partial-affairs associations other than wide-area administrative organs as well as
wide-area unions were urged to seek to integrate with wide-area administrative organs.
5.6 The situation of wide-area administration zones
5.6.1 The situation regarding the establishment of wide-area administration zones
Wide-area administration zones were started in 1969 in the form of wide-area municipal zones,
and in 1977 in the form of large city outer area administrative zones. The situation in April 2008,
using the latest data available, is shown in Table 3.
(Table 3) The state of the establishment of wide-area administration zones (as of April 1, 2008)
NumberNumber ofPopulationof zoneconstituent
Categories
Area（㎢）(,000)
areas
municipalities
1,702

92,604361,161(95.1)(77.6)(97.1)

1,503

69,114350,471(84.0)(57.9)(94.2)

199

23,49010,690(11.1)(19.7)

(2.9)

－

4.7

258

1,006

(B)

－

4.5

207

1,049

(C)

－

8

940

428

－

1,788

119,278

371,937

Wide-area administration zone

(A)

359

(within this figure) Wide-areamunicipal zones

(B)

334

(within this figure) Large city outerarea administration zones

(C)

25

Average for one zone(A)

Total number of municipalities

Note: Partially adapted from the MIC document, "Situation of wide-area administration zones" (as of April 1, 2008).
The figures in brackets are percentages (%) of the total number of municipalities.

15

There are currently 334 wide-area municipal zones, and 25 large city outer area administration
zones, hence 359 wide-area administration zones have been established in total. As a percentage ofthe country as a whole, the population in the zones represents 77.6% of the national total, and 97.1%of the total national land area. It is clear from these figures that, with the exclusion of the core areasof large cities, almost all the regions of Japan are covered by wide-area administration zones. In
particular, it should be noted that the core is represented by wide-area municipal zones, embracing
57.9% of the population and 94.2% of the land area. Furthermore, hometown municipal zones
number 137 in total, and all of these were designated from within wide-area municipal zones.
5.6.2 The present situation of wide-area administrative organs
The situation of wide-area administrative organs in wide-area administration zones as of April 1,
2008, is as shown in Table 4. Looking at wide-area municipal zones, these are divided into 31
wide-area unions, 156 partial-affairs associations, and 86 councils. In the early days, there was alarge number of councils, but at the present time, wide-area unions and partial-affairs associations
have taken on a stronger profile and now constitute a majority. Furthermore, the reason why the totalof wide-area organs is lower than that of wide-area zones is that there are municipal zones which
abolished wide-area organs within their jurisdiction. In the case of large city outer areaadministrative zones, in all 25 such zones, councils have been established as wide-areaadministrative organs.
(Table 4) Present state of wide-area administrative organs (as of April 1, 2008)
Categories

Kinds

Wide-area municipal zones

Large city outer area administration zones

Numbers

Wide-area unions

31

Partial-affairs
associations

158

Councils

86

Councils

25

Note: Partially adapted from the MIC document, "Situation of wide-area administrative organs" (as of April 1, 2008).

5.7 Evaluation of the policy of wide-area administration zones
5.7.1 Differentiating 4 objectives
The promotion of wide-area administration zones has been implemented for 40 years since 1969.
The promotion of such zones is deeply connected with the national comprehensive development
plans, and the period of 40 years can be divided into 4 periods of 10 years each in line with theformulation periods of these plans.
(1) Period 1 (1969-1978)
In the background to developments in this period is the concept of “wide-area, everyday livingzones” which showed in the New National Comprehensive Development Plan. This is the period
which saw the beginning of the policy of wide-area municipal zones, based on the Guidelines of1970, which in turn perpetuated the Guidelines of 1969. Also in this period, wide-area administrative
organs were created within the framework of the said zones, and on the basis of wide-area municipal

16

zone plans, a wide-ranging transport network, with roads as the main focus, was created, and joint
wide-area systems to deal with such matters as garbage and waste disposal, fire service matters, andso on, were also established. Further, on the basis of the 1977 Guidelines, a start was made on thepolicy of large city outer area administration zones.
(2) Period 2 (1979-1988)
With the concept of settled living found in the Third National Comprehensive Development Plan
as the background, a new plan was formulated on the basis of the 1979 Guidelines. This was theperiod in which making a comprehensive livelihood environment that displayed the concept ofsettled living became a target, and in which the development of service systems covering a wide area
was pursued, with efforts put not only into roads, but into the various projects needed for industry
and everyday life. In addition, it was in this period that saw the construction of “regional plazas”,
which would become the core facilities for residents’ services in the zone areas.
(3) Period 3 (1989-1999)
Against the background of the “formation of a multi-polar land structure” in the Fourth National
Comprehensive Development Plan, the third plan was determined on the basis of notices issued in
1989 and 1991. In this period, comprehensive development of zones was taken forward, aiming at
putting in place a living space that would really enable people to feel a richness of feelings andemotion. The first aim was to create a model zone area, and with this in mind, a hometown
municipal zone policy was launched on the basis of the Guidelines for promoting hometown
municipal zones issued in 1989.
(4) Period 4 (200-2009)
The Fifth Comprehensive National Development Plan was entitled “Grand Design for the 21stCentury” and incorporated the concept of “Creation of nature-rich development areas”. Against thisbackground, this was the period when the 4th Plan was formulated on the basis of the Guidelines
produced in 2000. Specifically, the hometown municipal zone policy was continued and renewed on
the basis of the 1999 Guidelines that focused on the promotion of hometown municipal zones.
However, the priority in this period was placed on responding to the great changes that resulted frommunicipal mergers.
Summing up, in the First Period, the concept of wide-area administration zones was launched andmade part of Japan’s administrative framework. In the Second and Third Periods, efforts were madeto develop zones further under the influence of the concepts displayed in the national comprehensive
development plans produced during the periods in question. However, in the Fourth Period,
precedence was given to the Great Heisei Consolidation that was launched in 1999, as a result of
which the concept of wide-area administration zones was diluted.
5.7.2 The two objectives of wide-area administration zones
The policy of wide-area administration zones (in particular, the policy of wide-area municipal
zones) can be thought of as having 2 objectives. The first objective was to establish systems aimed at
the joint administration of duties over a wide geographical area, not simply limited to a single
municipality, in order thereby to supplement and strengthen municipal administration. The second
objective was to take forward the establishment of the planned and comprehensive development of
the zone as a whole, thereby making a concrete reality of a functional merger10.
17With regard to the first objective, it is fair to say that this was almost entirely achieved thanks tothe substantial progress made in Period 1 and the continuing efforts to tackle the issues in Periods 2
and 3. However, with regard to the second objective, it has to be said that although significant efforts
were made, in the end, it was not achieved.
The primary reason for the failure to achieve the second objective is that the wide-areaadministrative organs in the form of wide area municipal zones proved unable to take on the primaryrole of planning and implementing integration throughout the entire zone. With the aim offunctionally strengthening wide-area administration organs, central government created new systems
such as complex partial-affairs associations and wide-area unions, and worked hard to ensure theirutilization. In addition, efforts were made from the outset to ensure the implementation of projects
based on wide-area municipal zone plans were administered by wide-area administrative organs in acomprehensive way. Furthermore, by establishing wide-area administrative organs as the mainsupervisory and operating agent of regional plazas and the hometown municipal zone fund, it was
hoped to enhance their authority and their planning and adjustment capabilities.
However, as already pointed out above, as of April 2008, although a majority of wide-areaadministrative organs in wide-area municipal zones took the form of wide-area unions andpartial-affairs associations, there were still 86 such organs which remained as councils.
A further point is that in the case of project implementation based on wide-area municipal plans,in almost all cases, the main implementing organs were municipalities or prefectures, and only in avery few cases, were partial-affairs associations, including wide-area administrative organs.11.
What did happen as a result of the policy of wide-area municipal zones was that a road network
was constructed over a wide area, and arrangements to provide wide-area services in terms of
garbage and waste disposal, fire services, and so on, were realized. That said, however, wide-areaadministrative organs, including those that became wide-area unions and complex partial-affairs
associations, remained weak as bodies able to assume the driving force in planning and project
development, and were unable to achieve “functional mergers” in terms of the area of a zone as awhole.
This situation is a major reason why the central government of Japan, about 40 years after theGreat Showa Consolidation of municipal mergers, again launched in 1999 a nationwide movement
to promote such mergers.

6. Promotion of the concept of autonomous settlement zones
6.1 The need for a re-evaluation of wide-area administrative zones
Municipal mergers in Japan have developed on a large scale since the program was initiated in
1999, and it is expected that the number of 3,232 municipalities recorded in March 1999 will bemerged into 1,757 merged municipalities by the time that the Great Heisei Consolidation program
comes to an end in March 2010 12 . This kind of nationwide, large-scale reorganization ofmunicipalities has exerted a large influence on the pattern adopted hitherto of wide-areaadministration zones.
The fundamental premise underlying wide-area administration zones is that to a certain extent alarge number of municipalities (cities, towns and villages) exists within a zone containing citizens
18who are carrying on their everyday lives. The further assumption is that these municipalities will
form a wide-area administrative organ and develop wide-area administration within the zone.
However, the fact is that the number of cases in which a wide-area administration zone has been
formed as one municipality (wide-area municipality) as the result of mergers of municipalities under
the current Great Heisei Consolidation program is just 37. Moreover, there has been a large increase,
numbering 59 cases, in wide-area administration zones in which the number of constituent
municipalities was only 2 and which did not go as far as becoming wide-area municipalities.
In a wide-area municipality, a wide-area administrative organ loses any reason to exist. Moreover,even where a wide-area administration zone consists of 2 constituent municipalities, the need tocarry out wide-area administration on a broader scale than that of the hitherto existing wide-areaadministrative organs is weakened. It is entirely possible that in zones of this kind, both of the 2municipalities which have expanded their scale, in fact continue to administer their respective duties
independently. Alternatively, it has also been suggested that all the municipalities involved in amerger, with the exception of one municipality, rather than engaging in the joint administration ofduties as a wide-area administrative organ following the pattern hitherto adopted, may find it moreconvenient and efficient to follow the line of delegation of duties.
It is a basic assumption that on the formation of a wide-area municipality, all existing wide-areaadministrative organs within that municipality are abolished. In actual practice, even in the
wide-area municipal zones consisting of just 2 constituent municipalities, 14 wide-areaadministrative organs were abolished, while in the total of 59 zones, including these 14 zones, thewide-area administrative organs ceased to exist.
The time has come to review the policy whereby wide-area administration zones are establisheduniformly throughout the country, and wide-area administrative organs undertake wide-areaadministration on this basis.
6.2 From wide-area administration zones to autonomous settlement zones
On December 26, 2008, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued a document
entitles “Guidelines for the promotion of the concept of autonomous settlement zones”. At the sametime as abolishing the “Guidelines for the promotion of hometown municipal zones” of April 21,
1999, and the “Guidelines for the planning of wide-area administration zones” of March 31, 2000,
the new “Guidelines for the promotion of the concept of autonomous settlement zones”, represented
a new policy concerning wide-area administration.
This was significant in that it marked abandonment by the government of the policy of wide-areaadministration zones that they had implemented for 40 years up to that point, and a major shift inwide-area administration policy to the promotion of autonomous settlement zones as a new device
for wide-area administration.
6.3 The objectives and basic structure of autonomous settlement zones
The concept of autonomous settlement zones was promoted from the perspective of trying to stem
the outflow of people from local zones, and create a flow of people in the reverse direction, into
local zones.
19

The fundamentals of the device are as follows13.
6.3.1 The establishment of zone areas
Autonomous settlement zones are meant to be formed as the result of an accumulation of
one-to-one agreements concluded on their own initiative between core cities and the surrounding
municipalities.
Specifically, the issue of what kind of zone to establish, or to put this another way, thefundamental question of whether or not to establish an autonomous settlement zone is left to theinitiative of each municipality.
6.3.2 The declaration of a core city and the agreement to the formation of anautonomous settlement zone
Within an autonomous settlement zone, the role of a core city is emphasized. It must have a
population of at least 40,000, and as the center of the zone, the ratio of the daytime to the nighttime
population should be 1 or more.
The process begins with a “core city declaration” made by the core city, making clear its intention
to assume a core role in terms of guaranteeing the livelihood functions necessary for the zone as awhole with a view to ensuring the residential stability of the population.
Next, the core city that has made the “core city declaration” concludes specific, one-to-one
agreements with the surrounding municipalities aimed at safeguarding the livelihood functions
necessary to ensure residential population stability (agreement to the formation of an autonomous
settlement zone). This marks the birth of the autonomous settlement zone.
More specifically, as items in the agreement, the following can be cited: the strengthening of
everyday life functions such as medical care, welfare and education, the strengthening oftransportation as well as IT infrastructure networks, the strengthening of management ability in thezone in terms of such areas as human resource training, staff exchanges, and so on.
Furthermore, turning to the implementation of duties on the basis of the autonomous settlementzone agreement, it is stipulated that this issue can be handled by means of the joint establishment oforgans, or by delegation of duties, and by means of private contracts.
6.3.3 Deciding on a shared vision for an autonomous settlement zone
The next step is that of deciding on a “Shared vision for the future of the autonomous settlementzone”, incorporating the specific agreements that have been taken forward on the basis of theautonomous settlement zone agreement and the future image of the zone, which in turn rests on thefoundation of separate, individual consultation between the core city and the surrounding
municipalities. The duration of such a vision is expected to be, in broad terms, about 5 years.
6.4 A comparison of autonomous settlement zones with wide-area administration
zone policies
If we compare autonomous settlement zones with the hitherto standard pattern of wide-areaadministration zones, the following stand out as major differences.
(1) Wide-area administration zones were thought of as entities which were to be uniformly
established by prefectural governors over the country as a whole. However, in the case of
autonomous settlement zones, everything, such as what kind of zone should be set up, and even20the fundamental question of whether or not the zone should be established in the first place,depends on the initiatives of the municipalities concerned. Moreover, because there is a
stipulation that the population of a core city must be over a set size, it is not assumed from the
beginning, unlike the case of wide-area administration zones, that autonomous settlement zones
must be established all over the country.
The fact that autonomous settlement zones are formed on the basis of an agreement between acore city and the surrounding municipalities is also a flexible factor, and it is entirely possible thatthe boundaries of a zone will differ according to such points as the content of the services provided.
(2) In the case of a wide-area administration zone, it was the practice to set up a wide-areaadministrative organ as the entity responsible for the management of the zone, but in the case of
an autonomous settlement zone, no separate organ of this kind is established, and the
management function of the zone is located in the core city.
(3) In the case of wide-area administration zones, administrative services were provided throughwide-area administrative organs such as, in particular, partial-affairs associations or wide-area
unions, but in the case of autonomous settlement zones, it is assumed that more convenient
formulae will be adopted such as the joint establishment of organs or the delegation of duties.
Specifically, the policy adopted in the case of wide-area administration zones was that the
government set up the zones in a uniform manner across the country as a whole, establishedwide-area administrative organs, and cultivated them as organs which were responsible for the
management of the zones; in this capacity, they drew up plans and offered comprehensive serviceson the basis of the plans. In contrast to this pattern, in the case of the new autonomous settlementzones, the initial establishment of the zones is left to the initiative of the municipalities in each area,
existing core cities are expected to assume the role of the driving force in the management of thezones, and under their leadership, simpler and more convenient devices will be adopted to deal withsuch tasks as the provision of services, and so on.
6.5 The current situation with regard to the implementation of autonomous settlement
zones
As of October 7, 2009, 35 cities had issued core city declarations, and of these, 8 cities haveconcluded autonomous settlement zone agreements with the surrounding municipalities. In addition,
among wide-area municipalities, there are 2 cities which are presumed to be autonomous settlementzones in their own right, with the result that 10 autonomous settlement zones now exist14.
From now on, attention will be focused on how far autonomous settlement zones will expand.

7 The future outlook for wide-area administration
As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, the response to the expanding role of municipalities
in Japan has until now basically been to adopt the method of mergers, and even in the periods
between the Great Consolidations, wide-area administration has been implemented. The repetitive
pattern can be illustrated as follows. Great Consolidation (Meiji Great Consolidation)➝ wide-areaadministration (associations) ➝ Great Consolidation (Showa Great Consolidation) ➝ wide-areaadministration (wide-area administration zones)➝Great Consolidation (Heisei Great Consolidation).
21

It should also be noted that at the present time, as a result of the new municipal system that has
been formed as a result of the Heisei Great Consolidation, municipalities must once again engage
themselves with wide-area administration. It is fair to say that the new age of administration has
arrived.
With more specific reference to this point, the 29th Local Government System Research Council
issued its report on June 16, 2009, entitled, “Report concerning the preferred pattern of basic local
public bodies as well as the audit and assembly systems in the future”. The report comments in thefollowing way on the choice facing municipalities15.
“In addition to a strengthening of the administration base as a result of mergers, a variety ofdifferent options should be prepared, including wide-area cooperation by means of jointly sharedundertaking of duties among municipalities, and complementary support given by prefectures, andeach municipality should be able to choose from the various options the one that is most appropriate
for its own individual circumstances.”
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, for its part, as already mentioned, hasabandoned its practice of producing guidelines concerned with wide-area administration, and has
also stopped promoting wide-area administration zones in its capacity as central government, whileon the other hand, it is leaving to the municipalities concerned the autonomous decision on whether
to maintain and continue the device of wide-area administration zones adopted hitherto16.
What can be said about the future of wide-area administration is that the national government(Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) is no longer adopting the method of uniform
implementation throughout the country. The age has arrived in which each municipality is able toexercise its own autonomous judgment about which method is best suited to its individual
circumstances, choosing from a range of wide-area administration options which include wide-areaadministration zones and autonomous settlement zones up to and including mergers, which can beseen as one extreme of wide-area administration.

[Notes]1 For further details on the merger of municipalities in Japan, refer to Yokomichi, Kiyotaka (2007),
The Development of Municipal Mergers in Japan, Up-to-date Documents on Local Autonomy inJapan, No. 1, Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) and Institute forComparative Studies in Local Governance (COSLOG), National Graduate Institute for Policy
Studies (GRIPS)
2 For further details on the repetitive nature of municipal mergers and wide-area administration in
the context of the development of municipalities in Japan, see Yokomichi, Kiyotaka (2009) [inJapanese] Kiso jichitai no shourai – gappei to kouiki gyousei no aida de [The future of basic
local government – between mergers and wide-area administration] in, Toshi to gabanansu[Cities and governance], Vol. 11, pp 2-7, Japan Center for Cities
3 The system of local autonomy in Japan at this time consisted of three layers, namely prefectures,counties and municipalities (cities, towns and villages). The layer comprising counties was
located between prefectures and municipalities. The county representative assembly was an organthat passed resolutions and gave advice within the county.
4 In Irie,Toshiro and Furui.Yoshimi Chikujyou shi-sei chouson-sei teigi [A commentary of City law,
and Town and Village Law], Ryosho Fukyu Kai, p 1818, the following interpretation is given. “A

22full cooperative is an organ that in practice is no different from a municipal merger, but whentowns and villages merge, the original towns and villages are lost for ever, and this loss ofidentity makes the implementation of a merger extremely difficult in the case of farming villages
with a strong sense of their own identity and a tendency to put emphasis on old traditions. In
circumstances of this kind, the organization of a full cooperative is nothing other than aprocedure for holding on to the results of a merger while not changing the names.”
5 Refer to ibid, pp 1815-1816.
6 Within the category of councils, liaison and adjustment councils were created by means of theenactment of the Local Autonomy Law of April, 1947, were then abolished by a further revisionin December of the same year, and then re-created for a second time by the revision of 1952.
7 See Matsukuma, Hideo, Kouik- shi-chou-son-ken oyobi chihou koukyou dantai no rengou[Wide-area municipal zones and the union of local public bodies], Jichi Kenkyu, Vol. 45, No. 12,
pp. 4-10.
8 On the basis of the “Guidelines for measures to promote wide-area municipal zones” of April 10,1970.
9 On the basis of the “Guidelines for measures to promote large city outer area administration
zones” of August 10, 1977.
10 In “Kouiki-shi-chou-son-ken ni tuite no Ichi Kousatsu[One consideration concerning wide-areamunicipal zones]” in Jichi Kenkyu[LocalAutonomy Resaerch], Vol. 48, No. 1, Hayashi, Tadao
writes as follows: “The time which has passed from the previous mergers is too short to start a
new municipal merger movement. ………. In the situation as it is today, we can say that the aimthat is needed in terms of the establishment of wide-area municipal zones is not that of dealing
with the third consolidation of municipal mergers, but of leaving cities, towns and villages as
they are, and adopting a rational solution whereby only the items concerned with wide-areaadministration are dealt with by means of devices as the sharing of duties.” (p, 44). He continues,“Even if the question of whether municipalities concerned decide immediately to go ahead with amerger or not is left aside as a separate issue, a basic, substantial issue that has to be faced as alocal public body is that of shifting, one step at a time, to the pattern of a wide-area municipal
zone and effectively establishing their footing as one municipality” (p, 46).
11 The documentation is a little old, but a breakdown by the main implementing organs ofwide-area municipal zone projects for fiscal 1994 shows that 56.2% were municipalities, 40.2%
were prefectures, and only 3.6% were partial-affairs associations, including wide-areaadministrative organs. See Ito, Masayuki, “Kouiki-shi-chou-son-ken Sinkou Seibi Jigyou no
Gaiyou[Overview of promotion and establishment projects for wide-area administrative zones]”
in Chihou Jichi[Local Autonomy], No. 594, 1997, p. 111
12 According to the home page (Japanese) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,as accessed on October 18, 2009.
13 On the basis of “Guidelines for the promotion of the concept of autonomous settlement zones”,
December 26, 2008.
14 According to the home page (Japanese) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,as accessed on October 18, 2009.
15 Refer for further details to p.7 of the report of the 29 th Local Government System ResearchCouncil, entitled, ““Report concerning the preferred pattern of basic local public bodies as wellas the audit and assembly systems in the future”, issued on June 16, 2009.
16 Refer to the notice entitled “Concerning future ways of handling issues related to hitherto
existing wide-area administration zones”,December 26,2008.

23

[References]
Sato, Shun’ichi (2006) [in Japanese] Nihon kouiki gyousei no kenkyuu – riron - rekishi - jittai[Research into wide-area administration in Japan], Seibundo Publishing Co., Ltd.
Nihon toshi senta [Japan Center for Cities] (2009) [in Japanese] Kiso jichi-tai no shourai-zou wokangaeru – tayou no sentaku no jidai ni [Thinking about the basic future vision of local
governments – toward an age of multiple choices]
Matsumoto, Hideaki (2009) [in Japanese] Chikujou

Chihou jichi-hou

Dai 5-ji kaitei-ban[Itemized edition of the Local Autonomy Law, 5th revised edition], Gakuyo Shobo.
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