Town and village heads gather to oppose compulsory mergers

About 600 people, including 37 town and village heads and Nagano Prefectural Governor Tanaka Yasuo, attended the second forum against forced mergers of municipalities in Achi Village, Nagano Prefecture on September 27 and 28.

The event was proposed by 22 town and village heads, including Achi Village Mayor Okaniwa Ichio.

Okada Tomohiro, a Kyoto University professor, gave a report titled "Establishing regional economies to help smaller municipalities' self-support."

Pointing out that the central government policy of forcing small municipalities to be merged is aimed at having more big public works projects, Okada stressed the importance of developing local industry and agriculture in order to revitalize regional economies. "Smaller municipalities, where residents and administration are cooperating with each other, are capable of doing so," He said.

Governor Tanaka, who introduced his policy of supporting the autonomy of smaller municipalities in his prefecture, stressed that a nation should be composed of self-governing communities.

The forum adopted an appeal demanding that the central government allow local governments to not form a merger. (end)