2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Comparative Cross-national Study of Local Government Reform a la New Public Management
| Project/Area Number |
12620083
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Politics
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
IMASATO Shigeru Kyushu University, Graduate School of Law, Professor, 大学院・法学研究院, 教授 (30168512)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
IMASATO Kanako Department of General Administration, Kumamoto prefectural University, Associate Professor, 総合管理学部, 助教授 (40234330)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2002
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| Keywords | Administrative Reform / New Public Management / Local Government / NPM |
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| Research Abstract |
Now in Japan "the lost decade" is one of the most popular buzzwords. Bubble economy burst up in 1990 to place ostensibly successful establishments in jeopardy. Deregulation, Decentralization, Privatization, Disclosure, Information Technology, Reengineering, etc., a number of measures were proposed and some were actually implemented, but none worked as expected.
Local governments are no exception. Quite a few local governments in Japan are now under awfully heavy burden of local government bond and suffering from ever decreasing tax revenue. As a matter of course this situation greatly enhanced the motivation for local governments to reform themselves. Thus local government reform in Japan became a national agenda. Most reform efforts, however, were to pursue such quantitative and static objectives as reducing the workforce, streamlining the organizations, cutting budget, and so on. In this paper we call the tendency an old trend.
Government reform a la New Public Management was rife from late 1980s to early 1990s especially in the Westminster countries. It was as late as in 1996 that reform endeavor in a NPM manner started to draw considerable attention in Japan. During last few years new trend in local government reform has emerged in the country losing confidence in itself. Here introduce we one of the most prominent reform practice made in Mie Prefecture.
Fukuoka City is among the earliest local governments who initiated a drastic reform called DNA 2002 Plan. In this study we discussed its significance with the collaboration of two eminent public officer of the City Government. Also the head investigator, Shigeru Imasato was blessed with the rare opportunity to participate in the Committee on Administrative Management of Seto City in Aichi Prefecture, where I could apply theories and knowledge of NPM reform to actual reform of the city government structure and functions
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