Faced with a rapidly shrinking population of elderly residents reluctant to run for seats on the local council, the village of Okawa, Kochi Prefecture, passed a referendum Monday designed to make it easier serve on the council while concurrently holding side jobs.
The measure goes into effect on April 1. Okawa's six seats are up for re-election in the April 21 nationwide local town and village assembly elections.
Japanese law forbids residents from serving as local assembly members while working as private contractors for the municipalities they serve. But the exact definition of a contractor is not clear. Okawa's new rules will allow contractors to continue to receive income from their businesses if there is little danger that doing so will damage the impartiality of their public duties.