for the maintenance and management of social infrastructures. Reviewing the regional social infrastructure’s ‘value as an advertising medium’ may lead to some more funding options.

Public offering of participatory market municipal bond (mini public offering bond) is a bond that is offered by the local government to individuals and corporations that live in the locality, starting in 2002. With the mini public offering bond, a detailed description of the project for which the funds raise will be appropriated must be submitted. There have been many offerings of bonds for the purpose of maintaining and managing social infrastructure.

In recent years, with the decline in market interest rates, the number and amount of bond offerings have been stagnating. However, each fiscal year there is still JPY200 billion worth of bonds offered, as it is a well-established means of funding for local governments. One of the special features of this

Figure 2-2-22 Naming Right Granted to Pedestrian Bridge (Osaka Prefecture)

Source) Osaka Prefecture

type of bond is that, in addition to the interest on bonds, there are often special benefits (purchasing premium) that take advantage of the region's characteristics awarded to the purchaser of the bonds. For example, bond purchasers maybe given a prize of a bag of rice from a lottery, or presented with free tickets to the local zoo. As the maintenance and management of social infrastructures goes forward in earnest, we hope the residents of the region will participate in the maintenance and management by purchasing mini public offering bonds.

As seen above, there are various methods being trialled to procure funds for the maintenance and management of social infrastructure. Going forward, using and contriving these sorts of ideas will be an important part of everyone supporting social infrastructure.

Figure 2-2-23 Number of Issued Miniature Public Offering Bonds and Trend in the Monetary Amount of the Bonds

Source) Developed by the MLIT from “Information material of Local Government Bond Association”

## 2 Residents Participating in the Maintenance and Management of Social Infrastructure

## (1) Residents' Interest in Participating in the Maintenance and Management of Social Infrastructure

When the ‘Public Awareness Survey’ posed the question, “Should resident participation in maintenance, management, and upgrading be expanded?” regarding what measures should be taken when the current methods of maintenance, management, and upgrading of social infrastructures became unsustainable due to population decline and downturn of the financial situation, 64.3% responded, “Should be implemented,” or “Should probably be implemented,” which corresponds to the same majority response for the question regarding, “Making things longer-lasting” (Figure 2-2-24). As seen in Figure 1-3-4, due to the aging of social infrastructures, there are higher levels of awareness regarding problems with the maintenance, management and upgrading. We can infer that, as a result, the idea of residents participating to be part of the solution is starting to spread.

Regarding the content of what residents would like to participate in, the percentage of people who advocated increase taxes and usage charges were low, while a higher percentage responded that residents should participate by contributing