Government panel recommends abolishing minimum standards for public services provided by local governments

Japan Press Weekly

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Government panel recommends abolishing minimum standards for public services provided by local governments

The government panel on decentralization on October 7 recommended that the government abolish the minimum standards for public services that local governments are required to meet.

If implemented, it will inevitably deteriorate local government’s public services, including children’s daycare, medical, and livelihood protection services.

The panel argued that the abolition of national standards will give local governments flexibility to set their own standards for public services without having to strictly abide by the Constitution which guarantees the people the right to receive certain levels of education and social services wherever they live.

Even at present, whether to meet the national standards or not depends on a local government’s decision. Scrapping the national standards will allow local governments to ignore the present minimum standards for public services.

Following the panel’s proposal, Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Haraguchi Kazuhiro ordered ministry officials to start working on removing the national standards, and suggested that some typical national standards such as a standard for children’s daycare centers should be reviewed as early as possible.

Is the Democratic Party of Japan going to violate its words to implement “children first-” and “people first-” policies or doesn’t it understand why voters in the recent general election delivered such a severe verdict on the previous government?
- Akahata, October 7, 2009