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Prime Minister Attends Meeting of the Nation's Prefectural Governors
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the annual government-sponsored Meeting of the Nation's Prefectural Governors at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.
In his opening address, Prime Minister Abe said, "A nation will not be vitalized unless its regions are vitalized. Highly motivated regions, freely developing their own measures to be reborn as attractive regions, will indeed be the source of our nation's vitality and growth. In order to further this process, at the current Diet session we have recently submitted a bill to promote the decentralization of power from central to local government. Moreover, with a view to full-fledged introduction of a regional government system (doshu-sei), we will move forward with deliberations on the vision for the doshu-sei to pave the ground for national debate. In the area of local government finances, we must undertake measures such as a review of local governments' annual plans for expenditure, based on the Basic Policies 2006 and in line with the review of the annual expenditure of the central government. I would like each Governor to implement resolutely regional administrative and financial reforms and take initiatives to further reduce local expenditures, including personnel costs and those projects limited to single municipalities." In response, Mr. Wataru Aso, the President of National Governors' Association and Governor of Fukuoka Prefecture, said, "The bill to promote reform for decentralization of power from central to local government serves as the starting point for the second phase of the decentralization reform we have been pursuing. We are extremely eager to have the bill passed at the current Diet session in order to further promote the new decentralization initiatives."
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