Nihon no chihō seifu: 1700 jichitai no jitai to kadai (Japan’s Local Governments: The State and Challenges of 1700 Municipalities)

Extract

Rather than the more traditional phrase of chihō jichitai (local self-governing bodies) or the legalese of chihō kōkyo dantai (local public entities), Soga Kengo adopts the less familiar term of chihō seifu (local government) to refer to local governments in his latest work – Nihon no chihō seifu. This is a conscious and important distinction. Under the centralised postwar system, Soga explains, Japanese local governments were seen as primarily administrative agents of the state; local representation and policymaking tended to be downplayed, even in terminology (ii–iii). Soga’s use of the term chihō seifu corrects for this bias, emphasising the political nature of Japan’s 47 prefectures and 1,741 municipalities.

The goal of his new book, then, is to capture the dynamics of Japanese local governments both as administrative organizations and as arenas of political decision-making. Published by Chuo Koronsha in shinsho format for a broader audience, Soga’s work is not an academic monograph. As such, it does not provide new empirical findings or seek to test specific research questions. Instead, Soga—equally fluent in public administration and political science literature—deftly synthesises accumulated research to illuminate the fundamental dynamics of Japan’s local governments.