17th Plenary Session of the Congress
Strasbourg, 15 October 2009
Speech by Issei Nishikawa, Governor of Fukui Prefecture, on Current State, Issues and Prospects of Local Administration in Japan
Thank you for your introduction.
President of the Chamber of Regions, Council Members, and all those here today, I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak at today’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
I am most honored to have the chance to speak here today about the local administrative autonomy and decentralization movements in Japan as a representative of the National Governor’s Association which is made up of the 47 prefectural governors of Japan.
You have heard speeches from Governor Sato of Fukushima, Governor Furuta of Gifu, and Governor Arai of Nara concerning local administration and the movement of decentralization reform in Japan. Using the themes of the three governors’ speeches and the new domestic political trends, I would like to talk about Japan’s current and future local administration.
(Introduction)
In Japan, the Hatoyama Administration was born this autumn.
The general elections held at the end of August had two results: the Liberal Democratic Party lost its position as the ruling party which it held since its formation in 1955, ten years after World War II, and it gave birth to the Democratic Party’s new administration.
In a huge victory, the Democratic Party increased its seats from 115 to 308. I believe this was broadcast in the European media.
The French Newspaper “Le Monde” said, “After half-a-century of a liberal administration, Japan moves left-of-center.”
In truth, the Liberal Democratic Party also lost its status as ruling party for a short 10 month period in August of 1993. This makes the current defeat its second time to lose power. German philosopher Friedrich Hegel said in his works on the Philosophy of History, “that the first time a historical event occurs it is received as chance, but the second time it occurs it is received as real.”
It seems that the people of Japan have accepted the defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party in this election as real. People were surprised about the size of the victory, and others were uneasy about some of the policies planned by the Democratic Party. But, overall the results have been well-received.
(Problem Development)
In its election manifesto (political statement), the new Hatoyama Administration promised to move from “central government control” to “local government initiative.” Using “local government initiative” as the election slogan, they took the idea of “decentralization” one step further.
The “local government initiative” that new government is planning has not yet taken form. Now we must think about what this means, the current issues and situations of local governments, and future prospects. I would like to talk about my personal opinions on these points.
(Characteristics of the Japanese Decentralization)
The debate over decentralization in Japan has a long history and comes up often. But the current debate began in 1993.
The Japanese decentralization debate has two political intentions. The first is the idea that local governments should solve newly arisen local problems. This is based on the proximity and subsidiary principle which I believe you are all familiar with in Europe.
The second intention, which one could say holds a hidden intention, is to lighten the burdens of the central government by transferring an unimportant part of their authority and their burdensome tasks to local governments.
In the background of the second intention, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, international politics and economics became remarkably more complicated. The central government started to recognize that it had to solve them as international problems.
At the same time, the media began reporting on emergence of domestic problems like the low birth rate and the aging society. The year before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the birth rate in Japan dropped to 1.57, the lowest in its history. This was called the “1.57 Shock.” This caused debates about durability of social security and care of the elderly. There were discussions about how the local government and central government could work together to solve these problems.
The comprehensive national report about decentralization published in 1995 clearly stated, “To reduce the burdens of the central government and strengthen its functions, decentralization is inescapable.” It is mysterious that the people of Japan paid almost no attention to this statement at the time.
(Issues of Decentralization in Japan)
In Japan, the two roles—lightening the burden of central government and moving closer to local communities—were expected in the idea of decentralization. Therefore, sometimes the decentralization debate has caused confusion.
I suppose the 1990s the decentralization debate has been more hotly debated in Japan than in the EU. Unfortunately, there is also a tendency to make issues unrelated to the original debate part of decentralization.
(Misuse of Decentralization)
The most extreme example is the regional system of merging the prefectures into larger states. Some argue that in order to strengthen the economy of the country, regional states should be made and the authority to tax and regulate the economy should be transferred to them. Those who support this system have incorrectly claimed that is itself decentralization. The regional system has been widely accepted by some business executives. There is even a slogan that calls the regional system the ultimate decentralization.
The “trinity reform”, (a term that might be unfamiliar in Europe) which means reducing the amount of transfers of tax funds, subsidies, and local allocation taxes to local areas, is thought to be essential to decentralization.
I believe the point of the reform was correct, but the result was the opposite. The reduction of the amount of local allocation taxes and subsidies was greater than that of the transfer of tax funds from the national government.
As Japan’s financial situation has become more severe in the past few years, decentralization is often used to lighten the burden of the central government, which was the hidden intention.
France is thought to have the same tradition of centralization as Japan. In that tradition, with the transfer of executive powers to local councils and the transfer of authority to local governments, the 1990s decentralization in France was watched with great interest in Japan. I am interested to know by what political and economic principles this was advanced under.
Now, I think the “local government initiative” that the new Japanese administration is promoting does not have the direct intention of using local areas to ease the burdens of the central government. But, I am afraid that it will continue to follow the same road as the past.
(Necessity of a new system)
In decentralization, the country transfers authority to the local governments to bring politics to the local level. Looking from the financial side, this is distributing funds from the rich cities to the countryside.
The new administration won most of its seats in urban areas through electoral districts. Is this kind of decentralization possible when the new administration’s base is the urban areas?
Urban areas and countryside are supposed to have a mutually dependent relationship. This can be understood by the countryside supplying the cities with water, electricity, food supplies, and human resources. But we have yet to see the government take responsibility and implement policies, such as creating large scale industrial and transportation infrastructure, which would connect to the creation of livelihood of the countryside. In order to compensate for this, I think it is important to guarantee the voice of the countryside to a certain extent.
I serve as the committee chair of the National Governor’s Association’s Constitutional Affairs Committee. Not based on ratio of population, the system of the Bundesrat, the Federal Council of Germany, where council members from each state deliberate on laws, compensates for the weak points of the single-seat constituency system. I think there are many things we can learn from this system.
(Spirit to drive the system)
From the bitter experience —namely government policies that cause the opposite effect than intended—of decentralization in Japan, no matter how delicate the system is, the autonomy to drive the system is the problem.
Eighteenth century Japanese Confucian scholar Ogyu Sorai (1666-1728) in his Theory of Politics which is like Japan’s version of Aristotle’s Politics said work is made from people and structure. Now matter how good the structure is, work will not be complete without the spirit of people.
With the end of the Cold War and the weakening of restraining ideologies, I think the autonomy of the people is necessary now. In Japan, in order to further decentralization—this is the same for every country—reform as well as the spirit that drives the system are important.
(Manifesto)
In Japan, political manifestos were introduced in local politics around the same time as the decentralization debate started. I also appealed to voters through my local manifesto in my first campaign in the 2003 election
As a result of decentralization, local political movements began using manifestos in local politics. So, local political manifestos have become well-established now which I believe was a step ahead of national politics.
In this national election, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party contested based on the policies of their manifestos for the first time. One can say that these movements that started locally changed the national political situation in this election. I believe these movements will support the desire to drive decentralization reform.
In the spring of last year, the hometown tax system (impôt de patrie) that reflected this spirit was introduced in Japan. This is a system that I proposed. In this system, taxpayers can make a donation to the place they call their hometown. It can be the place where they were born, they once lived, or they always desired to live. The taxpayer is free to decide. It has raised people’s spirit to support and contribute to their hometowns and will lead to decentralization.
(FukuiIntroduction)
Finally, I would like to introduce my home Fukui Prefecture.
Fukui Prefecture, located in the center of the Japan, faces the Asian Continent from the Sea of Japan. It is a compact area blessed with beautiful nature and surrounded by mountains and the sea.
Fukui is closely connected historically with Asia. When the ancient Japanese government was formed in the 5th century, Fukui served as an entryway for the people and cultures of China and Korea.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, by taking a train from Tokyo to Tsuruga, a port city in Fukui, and then a boat from Tsuruga Port to Vladivostok and connecting to the Trans-Siberian Railroad, people could travel from Tokyo through Moscow and Berlin to Paris in 17 days. It took about 40 days by sea at the time.
Tsuruga Port has many interesting stories from that time. Polish orphans left in Siberia from the Russian Revolution and Jews escaping the Nazis via Lithuania and the Trans-Siberian Railroad entered Japan at this port. It has been called “humanistic port” and “heaven.”
Fukui Prefecturehas a population of 820,000 people and land area of 4,200 square kilometers. It has about 1.5 times the land area and population of Luxembourg, and it is about half the size of the Alsace region where we are now.
Fukui is by no means large, but its birth rate, children’s academic and athletic ability, average life expectancy, percentage of women in the workforce, savings per household, and size of homes are all top-class in Japan
The Benelux countries, though small in scale, have a very high standard of living. I have appealed to the citizens and employees of the prefecture to try to make Fukui like the Benelux countries of Japan.
In order to achieve this, I want to make a new standard of richness based not only on economic richness but other indexes like hope and quality of community and so on. I am making government policies to improve these standards.
The other day, the new richness statistical index that President Sarkozy created was introduced in the Japanese media. I quickly read an overview of the report, and I felt it was rich in implications.
New Prime Minister Hatoyama at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change pledged to reduce the emissions of greenhouse effect gases by 25% of the 1990 levels by 2020.
This has been well-received by the countries of the EU, well known for their commitment to environmental issues. Fukui Prefecture, the base for nuclear power technologies in Japan, produces 30 percent of all electric in Japan. With 15 nuclear plants, including one fast-breeder reactor, it has the same number of nuclear power plants as the Rohn-Alpes area.
In June of next year, Fukui will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting of Energy Ministers. With many plans for the construction of nuclear power plants throughout Asia, Fukui would like to use this as a chance to contribute to the world through the development of human resources in nuclear energy.
Fukui is the birthplace of many talented and resourceful individuals. For example, Yuri Kosei, who wrote a draft for the constitution for the newly formed modern government in Japan in late 19th century, is from Fukui. Dr. Nambu Yoichiro who recieved the Nobel Prize in Physics last year and the Max Planck Medal from the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft is also a Fukui native. Fukui Prefecture is a treasure-trove of dinosaur fossils with a world-class Dinosaur Museum.
When you visit Japan, please come and visit Fukui. We are waiting for you. Thank you.