Slightly more than half of all municipalities in Japan are considering merging with another municipality to consolidate their administrative functions, a home affairs ministry report showed Saturday.

A total of 1,657 municipalities, or 51 percent of the total, were discussing possible mergers as of late September, according to the report by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications.

The figure was nearly three times the 607 reported in late March. It was also a rise of about 40 percent from the figure marked in late June.

The sharp rise apparently reflects a new state plan that grants favorable treatment to municipalities following a merger, as well as calls by the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for local governments to be financially independent of the central government.

According to the latest report, the 1,657 municipalities belonged to 324 organizations studying possible mergers. The number of municipalities and organizations rose by 1,050 and 206, respectively, over the previous six months.

A total of 109 municipalities took part in 30 legally authorized panels that held the most advanced discussions on possible mergers, while 198 municipalities belonged to 43 panels that conduct less specific discussions on possible mergers, it said.

The remaining 1,350 municipalities discussed issues involving mergers at 251 study groups.

By prefecture, all cities, towns and villages in Tottori and Kochi prefectures took part in one of the three groups. Ninety percent of municipalities in Kumamoto and four other prefectures belonged to one of the groups.

Fewer than 10 percent of municipalities in Hokkaido and Iwate Prefecture took part in any discussion while no municipalities in Tokyo were involved.