Abstract
The establishment of “regional autonomy” has been much discussed lately as a communitybuilding measure following the municipality restructuring. The question of how to organize and manage such communities to ensure their autonomy and independence becomes more important than ever. Especially in the case of island communities once run by independent municipalities and now faced with drastic lifestyle changes, their present realities and challenges in organizing and operating the regional autonomy should be unique, although only little of such reality have been known so far. This paper focused on this fact and chose the Town Planning Council (machizukuri kyogikai) consisting of bridged island communities of Kure City, Hiroshima, for analyses and discussions. The study found that the restructuring of the area was systematically and intensively implemented as an integral part of the merger-related measures under the local government and such strong initiative somehow facilitated the move towards the formation of smaller autonomies. In the process, each participating island has been allowed for diversity and flexibility reflecting values and land use unique to each community. While the achievement of the Council has been acknowledged to a certain extent, the questions of how to (1) establish a working group responsible for the implementation of policies; (2) secure the opportunity for the individual citizen to participate in the operation to maintain the openness of the organization; (3) revise the ongoing projects; and (4) revise the member constitution, should be raised as future issues. The regional autonomy covering these small islands may be required to examine the relationship between the formation of autonomies and self-discipline through administrative involvement, as well as the significance and function of the autonomy itself from the residents’ viewpoint.
