Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held the 14th meeting of the Local Sovereignty Strategy Council at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on revising the system of obligations (gimuzuke) and frameworks (wakuzuke) imposed [by the central government] on the regions [as a condition for using grant funds], introducing subsidies in the form of block grants, and the general abolition of ministerial branch offices.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "For revising the system of obligations and frameworks imposed on the regions, we had a decentralization law for the first and second rounds of revision established during this year's ordinary Diet session. Based on today's discussion, I would like to submit a decentralization bill for the third round of revision during the next year's ordinary Diet session.
Concerning block grants, I want to see both qualitative and quantitative enhancement. In addition to those given to the prefectural governments, I would like you to consider ordinance-designated cities as new recipients.
Then, concerning the general abolition of ministerial branch offices, following the discussion at the previous meeting, I instructed the ministers to promptly conclude discussions toward the transition to regional alliances at a gathering of ministers. An arrangement for this is currently being made in a focused manner, and I want to have the work accelerated in line with the action plan approved by the Cabinet.
This action plan also sets out approaches to such issues as centralized road and river management and "Hello Work" (public employment security office), based on which I believe we need to further reinforce and accelerate our efforts as a whole. I would like to tackle local sovereignty reforms with an unwavering resolve."