抄録
The Constitution of 1944 and the Fundamental Law of Education provide that all the people have a right to education, and that all parts of the government should respect school autonomy and set up conditions that are sufficient to enable schools to perform their jobs. The Constitution also requires the national government to respect the autonomy of local governments. In post-war Japan, local government does not bear the cost of teachers' salaries in public-sector schools in the compulsory age range. One half of the cost has been borne by the national government and the other half by prefectural governments. This peculiar educational financial system makes a contribution to ensuring equal opportunity of education regardless of the financial power of local governments. However, the national government often restricts decision-making at the local and school level through enforcement of expenditure conditions. Consequently, it has reduced the autonomy of local government in educational administration. Although the national government now plans to decrease its share of the expenditure on compulsory education costs in the name of strengthening local autonomy, this will bring about inequalities in educational opportunity, a decrease of local government autonomy in educational administration, and an increase in the power of national government.
