Partnership in Controlled Decentralization: Local Governments and the Ministry of Home Affairs

Abstract

Abstract The phrase, kan-kan settai, has often been in the headlines of major newspapers in Japan in recent years. Meaning ‘officials treating officials’, the phrase refers to the widespread practice of central bureaucrats being pampered with extravagant dinners and gifts by local officials seeking special favours. What people are angry about is that these treats are all paid for from official accounts. Such behaviour is now the target of much criticism, and deservedly so. It clearly belies the image held by some people outside Japan that bureaucrats here are impartial and incorruptible. But it also reflects an important underlying characteristic of Japanese governance in the post-war period, namely, the symbiotic relationship of central and local authorities in the development process. This relationship has changed in the post-war period through a process which is best described as ‘controlled decentralization’, a term which captures both the reality of control and the inevitability of decentralization in Japan.