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…

Local taxes are the most important source of revenue for Japanese local governments. Local taxes account for 35% of total annual revenue of all local government…

One of the things that I feel comfortable about in Australia is when I dispose of garbage. I can put out my rubbish any time (in the case of apartments in Sydney) and t…

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…

To learn from each other about advanced policies of local governments is very important not only domestically but also internationally.

One of the missions of C…

In Japan, there has been an increasing trend towards a decentralised society, and the trend seems to continue into the future. Under such circumstances, the Loc…