Abstract
Mergers of municipalities affect inhabitants' services in areas where with geographic barriers such as mountain passes occupy about 25% of the entire area. The financial argument that played a key role and its correspondence to services was postponed by the “great municipality merger in the Heisei era.” Therefore this paper, through a case study of Numata city in Gunma prefecture, attempts to clarify the effects of a geographic barrier on welfare services for the elderly.
In Numata, the barrier for commuting services between the Shirasawa and Tone districts is the Shiisaka mountain pass located at the boundary of the two districts. Deficiencies occurred in the service system after the merger of municipalities and reorganization of service areas. However, factors such as time and energy for mutual use of services between the districts over the mountain pass were not enhanced because the separation of the former municipalities remained in inhabitants' minds.
In municipalities that include such geographic barriers, an administrative body responsible for where elderly welfare services after the merger of municipalities should deal with the area as a whole, not simply within the limits of each former municipality, taking geographic conditions into account.
