| (2) |
Argument of advantages and disadvantages on municipal merger |
According to the First Guideline mentioned in the previous section, the general
advantages (effects) of municipal merger are as follows:
| i) |
Regional planning/City planning |
It enables municipalities to implement city planning from the wide-area viewpoints, promote the development of infrastructure by sufficient investments, strengthen general vitality, improve the regional images, implement the policies which need wide-area coordination such as environmental problems, and promoting sightseeing, and so on.
(Examples)
| ・ |
City planning such as developing roads and public facilities,
utilizing land, and zoning which utilizes regional characteristics can be executed
effectively from wide-area viewpoints. |
| ・ |
Policies related to issues which need wide-area coordination
and management such as environmental problems, problems of water resources, and
promoting sightseeing can be promoted effectively. |
| ・ |
Advancement of corporations, settlement of young people, and
invitation of important projects can be expected because producing bigger municipalities
will lead to, the improvement of the regional presence, "position", and images. |
| ii) |
Maintaining and improving of public services for residents |
Residents can not only get more choices of services, but also can receive higher standard services stably, keeping receiving current standard services.
(Examples)
| ・ |
Professionals such as experts in social welfare, health nurses,
experts in scientific treatment, civil engineers, and architectural engineers
who have been difficult to adopt or have been impossible to sufficiently secure
until recently, can be adopted and strengthened, which enables municipalities
to provide professional and high standard services. |
| ・ |
Professional teams composed of doctors and so on can be organized
and fiscal basis can be strengthened, which enables municipalities to provide
health care services according to each elder in different situations. |
| ・ |
Special organizations and staffs executing policies related
to city planning, internationalization, informational progress, and women, which
are difficult to establish in small municipalities, can be established, which
enables municipalities to implement more various and original policies. |
| iii) |
Improving the efficiency of administrative and fiscal management
and strengthening its basis |
Improving the efficiency of administrative and fiscal management enables municipalities not only to provide higher standard public services with lower cost, but also to develop general administration.
(Examples)
| ・ |
The managerial departments such as general affairs and planning
will become efficient, which enables municipalities not only to strengthen the
departments which directly take in charge of providing services and implementing
policies relatively, but also to reduce the number of staffs as a whole. |
| ・ |
The number of mayors, deputy mayors, treasurers, local assembly
members, committee or council members which every municipality should have, and
staffs of secretariat will decrease, which enables municipalities to save the
related expenses. |
| ・ |
The number of staffs and the amount of expenses per resident
in managing administration and implementing policies will be saved because larger
scale of municipalities will reduce more amount of administrative expenses. |
| ・ |
Public facilities such as support facilities and culture facilities
will be placed efficiently from wide-area viewpoints, which will remove similar
facilities in small regions. |
On the other hand, the general disadvantages of municipal merger are as follows:
| ・ |
May residents feel inconvenient because the location of municipal
offices becomes remote? |
| ・ |
May suburbs become obsolete whereas only downtowns may be improved? |
| ・ |
May it become difficult for residents to transmit their demands
to administrations? |
| ・ |
May history, culture, and tradition of each region be lost? |
| ・ |
May the standard of services become lower, which may put more
burdens on residents? |
But it is argued that these problems can be managed with the ways mentioned below.
The apprehension that residents may feel inconvenient because the location of municipal offices becomes remote can be managed with the ways to utilize old municipal offices as the branches of new municipalities, to maintain and improve counter services such as issuing copies of resident cards and certifications of personal seals utilizing post offices based on "Law for the Management of Specific Affairs of Local Governments at Post Offices", and to promote the on-line procedures of notifications.
The apprehension that suburbs may become obsolete can be managed with the ways to consider the situations of suburbs after municipal merger sufficiently in making the plans of municipal development, and to check the balance of polices between regions after municipal merger at regional councils which can be established by the unit of old municipalities after municipal merger.
The apprehension that it may become difficult for residents to transmit their demands to administrations can be managed with the ways to expand indirect democracy such as utilizing regional councils, and to promote the policies of directly adopting residents' opinions utilizing such as public hearing, surveys, and Internet.
The apprehension that history, culture, and tradition of each region may be lost can be managed with the ways to leave the name of old municipalities as the name of the districts within municipalities and the public facilities such as schools, and for new municipalities to support the development of regional cultures taken charge of by residents and groups.
The apprehension that the standard of services may become lower, which may put more burdens on residents, can be managed with the ways to enables municipalities to maintain and improve the service standards with lower burdens on residents by making the way of management of affairs efficient after municipal merger.
As for the arguments of the advantages and disadvantages mentioned above, it is necessary not to argue them in an abstract way, but to argue how much these advantages and disadvantages will occur assuming the concrete situations of municipal merger. In order to do so, according to the Third Guideline municipalities are expected to establish legal conference for municipal merger as soon as possible referring to "Manual for Management of Conference for Municipal Merger" made by the studying group of the manual for management of legal conference for municipal merger in the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications in August 2001. The thorough arguments with residents before municipal merger and leadership and practice after municipal merger will be important in order to utilize the advantages and reduce the disadvantages as much as possible.
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