"Reform of Local Bonds System in Japan"(in Japanese)

Abstract

Japanese local bond system faced major challenge since the World War‡U. This paper shows accurately and widely as much as possible what the issue is, and investigates pros and cons to this from the viewpoint of finance. We argue that the change in last few years was fundamental rather than stopgap and it is the turning point since the US occupation period reform just after the Second World War. The driving forces for these reforms include three factors: decentralization, deregulation in financial sector and the deterioration of the financial conditions of the small local governments. We argue that the reform is basically advanced toward a preferable direction. However, it will take time for the local government and the institutional investor to become accustomed to new system as the player. Especially, small-scale municipalities with scarce fiscal resources would become disadvantageous as decentralization progresses.