International Comparative Study on Municipal cooperation in Large Area

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In common with municipal systems in other advanced countries, Japan's local government experiences period of reform as policy makers seek to enhance the efficiency of municipal service delivery by amalgamation. However, amalgamation remains a controversial method of achieving local government reform. Some critics contend that coercive amalgamation may diminish the vibrancy of local democracy and reduce participation by the citizenry.In this study, we analyzed municipal amalgamation and cooperation internationally and compare them.We had intensive field survey in each country. In some countries, we find a change in emphasis away from municipal amalgamation toward alternative models such as shared services as a potentially successful method of improving the operational effectiveness of local government service provision.We also had the session at International Political Science Association (IPSA) World Congress in Fukuoka, July 2006, and we made discussion with Prof. Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko ＆ Pekka Valkama (Finland), Prof. Patrick Le Lidec (France), and also with Prof. Nakharin Mektrairat (Thailand). The discussion on amalgamation and municipal cooperation was exciting and we have got many findings on these matters.In Japan, the movement towards amalgamation has calmed down and the number of municipalities decreased from 3200 to 1800. Although the amalgamation policy comes to a turning point, the next steps on municipalities is not clear. We hope that our study has some implication on Japan's next steps on municipality reform.