Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to clarify how, with the progress of decentralization, municipalities try and fail in supporting socially-disadvantaged job seekers and in developing recruiting companies. How effective are the municipal policies for employment, almost all of which have never been enforced as full-scale policies? To answer this question, we need to step closer to the realities of the trial and error of the people concerned, rather than merely glance at the record of performance. Through this sociological work, this paper insists that it is right that much time is needed to realize the desired results. The prevalence of the mentality "it is because of bureaucracy that the PDCA does not operate" should be avoided. The four findings through a case study of Toyonaka city are the following: (1) Municipalities are forced to patch up external time device revenue sources for enriching their employment policies. (2) The employment policy of Toyonaka city is comprehensive. (3) This is based on the recognition that socially-disadvantaged job seekers need welfare-for-work support and basic job training, and that small companies need help for improving personnel management and for recruiting better-qualified people. (4) Therefore, the coordinators are providing every possible help for both the labor supply and the demand sides, and this is a time-consuming and difficult task, whoever is in charge of it. Should municipalities take on such responsibilities as this? To answer this important question, this paper shows the data through which we can examine whether this success and that failure are influenced directly by administrative laws. Nowadays centralism has more harmful effects in the decrease of employment and the increase of socially-disadvantaged job seekers. It is better to construct institutions which can try to achieve optimal local results, with the minimum standard of living guaranteed on the national level.
