Tottori Gov. Yoshihiro Katayama is hoping that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plans to reform local finances will be the first step for local governments to stand on their own feet.
"If local governments can effectively use the proposed reforms, it would be a good chance for them to change greatly," Katayama said Thursday during an interview with The Japan Times. "Subsidies have bound us, and we have lost independence. But we can be a lot more independent."
He said that the proposals unveiled by Koizumi last week largely correlated with what he and the reform-minded governors of Miyagi, Iwate, Wakayama prefectures had requested.