In Japan, most of the local governments non-subsidized expenditures are spent to finance welfare programs. Those expenditure shares of total burdens are greater for municipalities than for prefectures. With regards to the spending for persons with disabilities, however, the difference of non-subsidized expenditure levels between prefectures and municipalities is very small, then prefectures also play an important role. Since non-subsidized expenditures are discretionary mechanisms for local governments, the large differences in spending levels among prefectures are likely to be influenced by the local governmental political environment. In this paper, we examined whether the level of non-subsidized expenditures for persons with disabilities is affected by the political environment of governors and legislatures, using prefectural panel data for years 2013 and 2014. The results suggest that the governors who were supported by the Komeito reduced their non-subsidized disability expenditures, while the governors who were supported by share a ride the Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party increased their share of non-subsidized disability policy expenditures.

　The global spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) is a good example of comparing governance how governments (central and local) around the world have responded. The theme here is why each country adopted the traditional sovereign state method even though the coronavirus was spreading globally. While borders blockades, quarantines, lockdown, and movement restrictions are the typical methods of public health, the question is why global cooperation has not advanced.

　In particular, the World Health Organization (WHO), which is supposed to be the central body for the global response, has become dysfunctional and its status has declined. It is a contradiction that the more globalization progresses, the more difficult it becomes to coordinate globally.

　One of the reasons for this is that a return to sovereign states that can respond quickly to emergencies. Furthermore, the gap between national policies and global international institutions, which we call the GGG (global governance gap), is difficult to bridge, as it would be difficult to create a new regime.

　There have been many debates in academia and media on the determinants of the cross-national difference of COVID-19 deaths. This article tries to analyze the main factors which make a considerable difference in COVID-19 deaths utilizing the data available on 31 July 2020. The result reveals that the number of physicians (per 1,000 people) is negatively correlated with COVID-19 deaths. On the other hand, the number of hospital beds (per 1,000 people) is not. The political regime, the ratio of the population aged 65 and above, confirmed cases, and latitude are correlated with COVID-19 deaths. This result suggests that human resources are more critical to save patient’s lives than clinical beds. Except for demographic and geographic factors, the political regime also affects the number of COVID-19 deaths.

　This study focuses on the determinants of the subjective consciousness of victims of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the relationship between the subjective consciousness of victims and perceptions of the appropriateness of elections. Based on an analysis of the national survey, the main findings of this study are as follows: 1) Half of the respondents do not have the subjective consciousness of victims, and demographic variables do not define the subjective consciousness of victims. In other words, COVID-19 impacts the entire population. 2) The threat of COVID-19 in neighboring prefectures define the subjective consciousness of victims as COVID-19 is perceived as a threat that is close to home. 3) The governor’s evaluation suppresses the subjective consciousness of victims. Efforts to address COVID-19 in the political and administrative arenas close to home reduce anxiety in daily life. 4) Low evaluation of the prime minister promotes the perception of the appropriateness for elections during COVID-19. On the other hand, high evaluation of the governor reduces the response of DK/NA. Elections in the absence of evaluation of the cabinet’s efforts lead to political distrust, and information presented by the governor’s efforts leads to decisions based on the perception of the appropriateness of the elections.

　This study examines how politically mature Japanese adolescents are compared to adults and how political maturity increases in adolescence, focusing on the ideological consistency of issue attitudes and partisanship as a measure of voter competence. We conducted a pair of online surveys, one of which was for 15- to 22-year-olds and the other for the entire electorate, in 2017, and asked respondents their opinions about a variety of issues related to the left–right ideology. We analyzed the proportions of ideologically consistent attitudes using Dirichlet regression. The results indicated that, although young people have less ideologically consistent issue attitudes than older people, adolescents’ attitudes are more consistent than chance levels at the age of 15 and their consistency increases in adolescence. We also investigated the ideological proximity of partisanship by combining our data and that from an elite survey of the 2017 general election. The estimates of the sample-selection ordered probit model tell us that, among those who have partisanship, adolescents attach to parties that are ideologically close to them in the same manner as adults. Our results have implications for the discussion on lowering the voting age in Japan.

　Much research on compact cities has concluded that urban compactness is desirable from various perspectives, including fiscal and environmental. Many studies from a fiscal perspective have estimated the optimal degree of urban compactness from the perspectives of minimizing fiscal expenditures and/or maximizing fiscal surplus. However, there are no studies that have gone so far as examining the stoppage of local public services. To realize urban compactness as an optimal urban structure, it is essential to establish evidence-based criteria for stopping local public services, and to develop policies to guide a city to its optimal compactness. In this study, we applied the concept of the shutdown point in firm theory to local public services, and estimated the population density at which marginal cost and average variable cost are equal. The study found that the criterion for shutting down local public services is a population density of 2,390 people/㎢.

　In the context of a global epidemic, major challenges of many countries have been how to ensure balances between effective state interventions in personal health issues and normal economic activities. At present, we have tended to focus only on the issue in the immediate future, but in the longer term, we should also look at the changes in the overall state of social life, especially social relationships among people. Therefore, in this paper, I will try to present the importance of a different arena from the nation states and their economies by examining the concept of social capital and its relation to health.