Fewer subsidies, less transfers, more taxing power. Thus goes Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's "trinity" of local government reforms.

According to Mr. Koizumi's proposals, subsidies paid out of the central government's coffers to fund local community projects will be slashed by around 4 trillion yen by fiscal 2006. Transfer payments from the central government in the form of "tax grant" allocations to local authorities will also be pared down. To compensate for the loss of revenue, local governments will be allowed to collect their own taxes -- up to 80 percent of the amount lost through the subsidy and transfer cuts. A 100 percent recovery through local taxation will be permissible for subsidy cuts that occur in the area of compulsory public services, such as education and welfare.

One in three, three in one. A trinity is a trinity because the three parts are inseparable. Indeed there are no separate parts in a trinity. It is all part and parcel of the whole thing. The image is a clever one. One doubts if Mr. Koizumi's knowledge of theology extends to the understanding of the Holy Trinity and its mysteries, but lack of scholarly precision has never prevented politicians from lifting words from scholarly or even holy texts to their advantage.