SENDAI -- The public nursing care insurance system, due to go into operation next month, is the first real test of local autonomy and its success depends on the performance of each municipality, according to Miyagi Gov. Shiro Asano.
"So far, discussions on decentralization (of power to local governments) have tended to be abstract, and many people simply view local autonomy as something good without knowing what it really means," the health ministry official-turned-politician said during a recent interview with The Japan Times.
Yet the harsh reality is that the shift of greater authority to municipal governments will reveal disparities between those that fare well and those that do not, exposing each municipality's performance to public scrutiny, he warned.