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 City), so in every upcoming issue I would like to talk to you about some of the seasonal events and work that Japanese local governments do. In this issue however, I will introduce a simple outline of Japanese local governments.
Japan has a two-tier local government system which consists of, as of 2015, 47 prefectures and 1,718 municipalities (including 790 cities). Each local government has an assembly as its highest decision making body, whose members are directly elected by its citizens. The head of a local government – a governor in a prefecture, and a mayor in a municipality – is also directly elected.
Almost all staff of a local government start their careers in their 20s, working for the same local government until their retirement at the age of 60 – a typical “lifetime employment”. So governors, mayors, and members of assemblies often change, but the local government offices do not.
The financial year of local governments runs from April to March, and almost all changes in staff are done in April. Right now – autumn in Japan – there are many events held by local governments and their organisations, because new teams were organised in April and they have been planning and preparing for events taking place this season. I look forward to telling you about these in the upcoming issues.