Prefectural governments and economic organizations in the Kansai region have reached a broad agreement to set up a wide-area administrative association as early as next summer on the basis of the Local Autonomy Law. In various parts of Japan, similar associations have been established. But one being contemplated in Kansai is the first that involves prefectural governments.
An initial plan calls for the planned association to involve itself in such activities as making wide-area plans and training of officials and residents to cope with large-scale disasters, coordinating the operation of ambulances and helicopters transporting doctors across prefectural borders and promoting tourism in Kansai.
The association will be created by upgrading an association that was established in June 2007 through the incorporation of eight associations. Economic organizations in Kansai took the initiative in promoting cooperation among local governments and themselves in such fields as tourism and development of the Osaka Bay area. Behind this move is economic organizations' concern over the Kansai region's decline as an economic center relative to the Tokyo megalopolis.