A comprehensive study of the influence of municipal amalgamation in Japan,promoted by the national policy in the Heisei era.

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This study elucidated the influence that the municipal amalgamation in the Heisei era brought. We made a cross country comparison about municipal amalgamation and built databases about administration (number of officials, administrative organization, public facilities), finance (general account and special accounts, public enterprises), politics (result of elections, attributes of elected officials) of amalgamated cities. We also did interviews with the officials of central ministries, prefectural and municipal governments who were in charge of amalgamation.Though the central government has spoken out the good effects of the amalgamation, we found that those effects did not significantly appear in the comparison with the local governments which did not amalgamate. In addition, the measures that were introduced to cope with an evil of amalgamation (e.g. an increase of a inhabitant’s sense of distance for the local government) did not function enough. We concluded that the municipal amalgamation in the Heisei era was promoted for making municipal governments carry out an administrative reform, that is, reduction in administrative expenses and the number of officials.