As you may already know, I have worked for four local governments in Japan during my career (Niigata Prefecture, Yokohama City, Wakayama Prefecture and Sakai Ci…

My term of office as the Director of the Japan Local Government Centre (CLAIR, Sydney) will sadly come to an end soon and I will go back to Japan on 24 July for my new as…

In New South Wales, pet registrations are recorded on the NSW Companion Animal Register. Dogs must be registered by six months and by an owner 18 years of age or ov…

Most Japanese local governments think it’s very important to regenerate local vitality by promoting tourism.

As you know, Japan is relatively a small country, …

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…