Since the 1980s, the local governments of Japan have been carrying out administrative reforms in order to promote rationalization and streamlining of their operations. Such administrative reforms have tackled a wide range of issues, including administrative operation reform( i.e., promotion of privatization), administrative organization reform, reduction of personnel, and salary cut. Furthermore, since the late 1990s, the increasing number of the municipal governments has adopted the NPM(New Public Management), which involves policy evaluation, PFI(Private Finance Initiative), incorporated administrative agency system, market testing, etc. This paper will first review various administrative reforms of the developed countries since the 1980s. Then, based on the review, it will examine the history and state of the municipal governments’ administrative reforms and their characteristics, and also provide a perspective on the direction of the municipalities’ future administrative reforms. |