Population Decline and Municipalities: Administrative Decentralization Has Reached Its Limits

Editorial

13:59 JST, January 13, 2026

Reforms meant to boost local autonomy have been pursued for many years under the slogan “what can be done locally should be done locally.”

However, as population decline and the graying of society have progressed, small municipalities are increasingly losing the capacity to handle various tasks. The time has come to reexamine the relationship between the central and local governments.

The government will soon launch the 34th Local Government System Research Council to begin discussions on reviewing the duties of municipalities. For municipalities facing severe staff shortages, the council will consider transferring some tasks to the central or prefectural governments or having neighboring municipalities collaborate to work on them.

The council plans to compile specific measures by fiscal 2027.

Municipalities’ duties include many services that directly affect residents, such as providing benefits under the national health insurance system, conducting screenings to certify the level of nursing care needed by elderly people, managing elementary and junior high schools and collecting garbage.

Recently, they have also taken on roles like assisting so-called shopping refugees who are impacted by the withdrawal of commercial facilities, as well as addressing issues of loneliness and isolation among single elderly residents.

It is not easy for small municipalities to carry out such a wide range of administrative services. Municipalities have voiced concerns about the heavy administrative burden of tasks related to nursing care. The central government should lend an ear to such needs and consider delegating tasks to prefectures that have more personnel available.

Many municipalities also struggle to secure staff with specialized knowledge. For example, the town government of Wakasa, Tottori Prefecture, has been seeking civil engineers for more than five years without a single applicant, forcing general staff to handle such jobs as road construction projects.

In Yamanashi Prefecture, the village government of Doshi was unable to secure full-time public health nurses for this fiscal year, and the prefectural government dispatched them. Such cases are likely to increase.

A mechanism for municipalities to share personnel resources should also be considered.

It is also important to promote the digitization of administrative matters and streamline the process of implementing tasks.

Following the so-called Heisei era (1989-2019) major mergers of municipalities since 1999, the number of municipalities, which had been over 3,200, was reorganized to about 1,700. Mergers led to the consolidation of facilities, but many residents reported greater inconvenience, and momentum for further mergers has waned in recent years.

However, according to the government’s estimates, the number of municipalities with populations under 10,000, which stood at 521 as of 2020, is projected to increase to 737 municipalities 30 years later. There is a risk that these local governments may become unable to maintain administrative functions by themselves.

When a merger becomes unavoidable, efforts should be made not to disadvantage residents, and thorough explanations and other measures should be utilized to show them consideration.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jan. 13, 2026)