This article examines the genealogy of expressions indicating transitions “from A to B,” such as “from a big government to a small government,” to better understand the development of the philosophy advocated to achieve administrative goals in post-war Japanese administrations. Leading metropolitan administrations are expected to develop ideas for organizations based on the history that led to the government's current way of thinking. Administrators also seek organizational forms that are most suitable for a metropolitan administrative entity to fulfill its role. This article examines major metropolitan government administrators who have considered the form of organization necessary to accurately respond to the newly advocated philosophy; the new metropolitan administrative entities appropriately select multiple local governments within the metropolitan area, necessarily forming organizations that can demonstrate a high level of policy power.

Ordinance-designated cities have various problems regarding achieving democracy and local autonomy from the national and prefectural governments. This article points out some of those problems based on the experiences of the author as a former mayor of Kawasaki City and presents some ideas to solve such problems.

In a democracy, the election of one person for mayor by an enormous number of votes often results in the selection of a famous or performance-oriented candidate who lacks the capability to serve as a mayor. To avoid this tendency, the author recommends selecting candidates from within the city assembly. In order to correctly reflect the opinions of residents in the actions of a city's administration, a new system should be introduced at the ward level. To ensure the independence of large cities, two kinds of system reform are recommended. One is to transfer all the power and responsibilities of the prefecture to the corresponding ordinance-designated city, and the other is to introduce the system of municipalities implemented by Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

This article aims to analyse political turmoil in Osaka, triggered by the “Osaka Metropolitan Government Scheme (OMGS).” The then-Governor of Osaka, Mr. Toru Hashimoto, unveiled the OMGS, and formed the “Osaka Restoration Association” in 2010. Why did such a scheme emerge in Osaka, and not in other urban areas? How did the Osaka Restorationists pursue the scheme in spite of possible difficulties to be dealt with? This article stresses the socio-economic conditions under which the OMGS has emerged. It then explains the political battles between Osaka Restorationists and other national parties like the then-ruling Democratic Party of Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the New Komei Party. In conclusion, it can be said that the OMGS, based on the distinctive socio-economic context, has been traditionally pursued in Osaka. However, what kind of OMGS-related proposals will be formulated and whether such proposals will be passed by the prefectural and city assemblies depends on how credible the political threats made by Osaka Restorationists are against rival parties, particularly against the New Komei Party.

In Japan, large cities like Kyoto and Osaka are governed by directly-elected monopodial mayors (chief executives), with only one elected representative responsible for major decision-making, including collaborative urban governance in partnership with residents and many other stake-holders. In France, for instance, quasi-cabinet-type groups of elected councillors practically carry out executive functions of large cities. A similar collegial system, in fact, was adopted by Japan in the Meiji-era, but abandoned after World War II and simply forgotten until now. The author discusses merits and demerits of current and past systems of urban governance by comparing them with European practices, then proposes that large Japanese cities return back to collegial governance so that multiple elected representatives are responsible for the administration of public affairs and are able to develop potential abilities for better urban and national governance.

This study was based on research interests of the new aspect of city halls as civic collaboration hubs and their role as an intermediary. Nowadays, many Japanese local municipalities are facing demands for city hall reconstruction due to building deterioration and lack of structural strength. At the same time, local government policy increasingly depends on citizen collaboration and social networking in accordance with decentralization. Therefore, we evaluated the status of and examined the challenges faced by newly built collaboration-based city halls in the cities of Nagahama, Ishinomaki and Nagaoka, all locations showing strong interest in the role of intermediary for civic life concerns. We have concluded that the performance as an intermediary and the strength of social networking favorably characterized the functions of each facility. Thus, we proposed an appropriate procedure which enhances a city hall's function as a civic collaboration hub.

In this thesis, we analyze which factors influence urban compactness. Our results show that the potential urban area size which is determined by land use regulations such as the “Urbanization Promotion Area”, and the ratio of private car users to all commuters, have a significant positive influence on the “Normalized Standard Distance,” which is the indicator of urban compactness. This means that land regulation and public transportation could contribute to urban compactness. In addition, we found that public transportation is more effective for urban compactness at the period when the potential urban area is limited to a narrow area, which corresponds to the period before the urban area is extended to the suburbs. Our results suggest that the earlier public policy actions toward urban compactness benefited urban compactness.