Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/84849

KEYWORDS : Maintenance;public infrastructure;intergovernmental cooperation;vertical/horizontal;territory/function

This article examines the characteristics of contemporary Japanese intergovernmental cooperation by focusing on the cases of maintenance of road, bridge, and water supply through the concept of territory/function. Due to depopulation, increasingly ageing facilities, and lack of specialist staff, each municipality faces operational and maintenance difficulties. In such a situation, intergovernmental cooperation has attracted attention as an effective solution for decades. Case studies have suggested contrasting effects of intergovernmental cooperation on the maintenance of public infrastructure. On the one hand, for road and bridge, municipalities, the prefectural government, and the central government’s regional office tend to develop vertical and functional cooperation; on the other, for water supply, municipalities, considering democratic legitimacy, aim to develop horizontal and territorial cooperation in addition to functional cooperation.