Monday, December 8, 2008

The Prime Minister Receives a 2nd Round of Advice from the Decentralization Reform Committee

Prime Minister Taro Aso received a 2nd round of advice from Mr. Uichiro Niwa, Chair of the Decentralization Reform Committee, at the Prime Minister's Office.

The Committee gave the advice as part of ongoing efforts from the 1st round of advice to fundamentally review the roles to be played by the central government and local public bodies. The goal is to consolidate "local governments," with the basic policy of transferring, in a consistent manner, as much power as possible to plan, determine, and implement policies to realize administration that stands shoulder to shoulder with people in communities. Two pillars of the 2nd round of advice are "review of obligations and frameworks" and "review of regional offices of the national government."

Upon receiving the advice, Prime Minister Aso said, "The Government must compile a reform schedule by March of next year. The reform will cover a wide range of areas. I ask the Committee to consider civil servants when designing the system, so as to enable them to work with stronger motivation."