One of our important tasks is to conduct research on Australian and New Zealand local governments and make reports for the benefit of Japanese local governments…

Japanese local governments are responsible for ensuring the safety of their residents. Before World War II, police services were operated directly by the cent…

In general, Japanese local governments must have normal revenue resources other than local bonds to cover their annual expenditures. However, they can issue l…

Japanese local governments deliver services such as water supply, public transportation and sewage by establishing “local public corporations.”

You can ima…

Electoral systems vary from country to country. For example, in Japan it is totally a voter’s right to decide whether to cast a ballot or not, and local government…

Today I am writing about the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), one of the Japanese central government agencies which is responsible for lo…

As you may know, the population of Japan has begun to decrease. People tend to live in big cities such as Tokyo. The more rural a local government is, the bigger the i…

Last month, I joined the speed talk sessions at the Institute of Public Administration Australia NSW Conference and made a brief presentation about how governm…

Last month, I attended the 2014 National General Assembly of Local Government. At the conference, the ALGA adopted an urgent resolution which called on the Comm…