A 15-member government panel has submitted an interim report recommending the introduction of the "doshu" system of regional governments. The report, submitted to internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda, calls for a complete shift to the new system by 2018, and proposes that the government submit a basic law on the doshu system to the Diet in 2011.
The problem is that the proposed change lacks public enthusiasm. People have the impression that only some people in and around the central government are eager for the new system.
The report stresses the importance of dismantling the centrally governed state that has existed since the Meiji Restoration. Under the doshu system, the central government's function would be limited to 16 areas including diplomacy, national security and trade policy. Although the new system would divide the nation into administrative regional blocs, the report does not show which geographical areas would actually form the individual blocs. A study group within the Liberal Democratic Party last year proposed dividing the nation into 13 regional blocs.