On 2 October, I talked about Japanese local governments at the Comparative Local Governance course organised by the ACELG, UTS (https://www.jlgc.org.au/about-japan/1110-2/).
This program introduced participants to the key elements of comparative local governance by showing the case studies of Pakistan, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, UK and Japan.
Since I came to Australia, I have been studying about the Australian local government system and I sometimes write reports for the Japanese people. In my recent report, I explained about the NSW local government reform by introducing the Independent Local Government Review Panel’s recommendations and insisted that there are a lot of common challenges local governments of the two countries face such as financial sustainability, amalgamation, effective audit system, effective governance, problems of rural areas and metropolitan areas.
I think the system of local governments varies from country to county but also has a lot of common aspects. Comparison of the situation of our country and another’s can be used in order to identify lessons and to reflect on our own situation. That is why comparative study is very informative and refreshing.
