Merger Policy
The government's stated goal is to reduce the total number of Japanese municipalities to 1,000. The government did not provide a distinct timetable.
Japan had around 1,822 municipalities at the beginning of 2007, considerably less than the 2,190 on April 1, 2005 and a decline of 40 percent from the number in 1999. The 1,822 municipalities include 198 villages, 777 cities and 847 towns.
The municipality merger promotion law was revised to ease the burden on debt-ridden local governments and to create larger municipalities so more administrative power could be transferred to the local level. The law's deadline passed on March 31, 2006.
Read more about this topic: Municipal Mergers And Dissolutions In Japan
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