一般注記type:text
The contemporary Japanese government system evolved from the aftermath of World War II. In recent years, there is an increasingly prevalent view that this system is no longer functional or sound, and thus one of the most important challenges of today’s Japan is to promote decentralization of the public administration and financial system of local authorities. This paper focuses on the Local Allocation Tax (non-specified inter-governmental transfer) system and investigates whether income gaps between prefectures have declined during 1980-2001, and if so, to what extent the system has contributed to such a regional convergence. This paper also briefly overviews conditions in developing countries and their inter-governmental transfer systems. So far, the Russian system appears to be superior to China’s since it is more rule-based and simpler. However, because of the huge regional income differences inherited from past economic policies, the system has not yet succeeded in narrowing income differences and promoting incentives to improve revenue and expenditure performance. The paper also discusses recent reform efforts to deal with local governmental problems in Japan.
The 21st century center of excellence program "Policy innovation initiative: human security research in Japan and Asia"
連携機関・データベース国立情報学研究所 : 学術機関リポジトリデータベース（IRDB）（機関リポジトリ）