Empirical Studies on the Administration and Finance of Metropolitan Areas in the Process of Urban Reconstruction

1.日本单一核心区东京的高度集中化问题，反映了日本地区和城市经济社会的一些新的重大变化。这些变化与经济的国际化、高科技和服务化转型以及信息社会和老龄化社会的出现是相互关联的。本项目试图探讨这些变化的内容、原因和意义，并着重探讨它们对公共财政的影响。这项研究分两条线进行。一种是东京和大阪地区的比较调查，同时考虑到名古屋、纽约等其他大都市地区的近况。二是对近十年、十五年来城市财税改革的主要研究成果和政策建议进行了回顾和分析。这样做是为了在这些问题上提出新的改革思路。由於我们的研究结果和构思已载列於两份成册报告内，因此，我们想在此概述作为研究结论而制订的下一世纪城市政策的主要议程。(1)对市中心特别是东京外围地区变化的政策反应。(2)与服务业转型相适应的财政体制改革(如对日益增长的地下经济征税等)。(3)应对与城市人口老龄化有关的财政变化(对养老基金、医疗保健、社会福利的需求，将城市设施从年轻人的使用改为老年人的使用，失去所得税基础等)。(4)对基础设施恶化和更新的反应。特别是支持当地基础设施维护和翻新的财政措施。(5)建立国际化和城市内部信息-文化中心功能的新财政手段(例如，对便利设施等征税)。

1. The problem of hypercentralization to Tokyo, the nation's single core, reflects some new big changes of regional and urban economy and society in Japan. These changes have taken place interrelated with internationalization, high-tech, and service oriented shifts of economies, and the emergence of information society and aging society. This project has been an attempt to inversigate the contents, causes and significances of these changes focusing on their impacts to public finance. The research was done in two lines. One was the comparative survey between Tokyo and Osaka area, taking into account the recent situations of other metropolitan area like Nagoya, New York and so on as well. The other one was the reviewing and analysing the major studies and policy proposals for urban fiscal and tax reform of the last ten or fifteen years. This was done for the purposing new reform ideas on those matters.2. As our findings and ideas are shown in the two volume reports we made, here we would like to summarise the major agenda for the urban policy toward the next century which we formulated as the conclusion of our studies. (1) Policy responses to the changes of inner city areas, especially outsides Tokyo area. (2) Reform of fiscal structure in accordance with the service oriented transformation of industries (ex. taxing on the growing underground economies etc.). (3) Response to fiscal changes related with the aging of urban populations (needs for pension funds, health care, social welfare, conversion of urban facilities from the youngers' use to elderlys', losing of income tax bases, and so on). (4) Responses to infrastructure deterioration and rennovation of them. Especially fiscal measures for supporting the maintenance and rennovation of local infrastructures. (5) Establishing of the new fiscal devices for internationalization and internal information-cultural center functions of the cities (ex. taxing on amenities and so on).