On 2 October, CLAIR Sydney was invited to speak about the makeup of Japanese local governments at the University of Technology Sydney, home of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG).
In Japan, comprehensive decentralisation reforms were implemented twice in 1999 and 2011, so the lecture focused on these reform measures and there was also an overview of the local government system.
The attendees, a mix of graduate students and public servants at local governments, were very interested in the Japanese system, asking many questions on a range of topics such as why Japanese local governments are responsible for primary and junior-high schools, and how local tax rates are decided.
The Japanese local government system is very different to those in Australia. We will do our best to provide up-to-date information on the Japanese system via this newsletter and whenever the opportunity presents itself.