| Research Abstract |
The number of municipalities decreased from 3,232 on 31^<st> March, 1999 to 1,821 on 1^<st>, April 2006, during the first stage of the national pro-merger policy. This is the third attempt by the national government. In our research project, from the viewpoint of "the spatial systems of administrative organization", we investigated new administrative orgaizations of newly enlarged municipalities and analyzed the reformation of intra-urban and regional systems and the expected situations of new regional policies. Major results are as follows.
1)As of 31^<st>, March, 2006, there is a large difference in progress of the pro-merger policy among prefectures. The maximum participant ratio of municipalities to the municipal amalgamations was 97.1% in Ehime prefecture and the minimum ratio was 4.5%, in comparison with the national average of 60.9%.
2)Among new 514 municipalities which had been established by 31^<st>, March, 2006, (excluded 43 unknown cases on the spatial administrative systems),
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the number of "Single headquarter system" municipalities was 163 (31.8%), the number of "Comprehensive branch system" municipalities was 217 (42.3%) and the number of "Multi-headquarter system" municipalities was 133 (25.9%). The spatial administrative system which was adopted by the newly enlarged municipalities had the strong relationships with the legal types of amalgamation, the regional types, the area sizes and population sizes of themselves.
3)We conducted interview research with prefectural governments and municipal governments in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Shizuoka, Tottori, Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures.
As a result, there were large differences among newly enlarged municipalities in the new spatial administrative systems and organizations, in terms of the operational authorities, the officer allocations, the manners of communication, the introduction level of e-government facilities, the influences to local surrounding areas of former municipal offices, the introduction level of local councils.
4)We conducted interviews with the prefectural and municipal offices in Hokkaido, Miyagi, Shizuoka, Tottori, Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures. As a result, there were large differences in the authorization levels (Budget, Making decisions, etc.), personnel allocations and introduction of IT facilities, influence to local areas and introduction levels of local councils. among enlarged new municipalities.
Newly enlarged municipalities have serious problems caused by the spatial administrative systems. In other words, there are no systems which are prefect for local municipal operations. It could be concluded that residents should have the authorization to choose one from three systems of spatial administrative organizations. Less
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