- TOP
- ＞Institutes and other organizations
- ＞Local Autonomy College
For the future of local autonomy
Half a century for development of executives
After World War II, the local autonomy system was established under the new Constitution. Democratic and efficient management of local administration required an organization for advanced training of workers for local public entities that are directly engaged in local administration. In this situation, the law for establishment of Local Autonomy College was enacted in response to requests from local public authorities, and Local Autonomy College was set up in October 1953 as Japan's only central training institution for local public employees. It has been producing excellent personnel for over half a century since its launch, and many of its graduates have been working actively in the front lines as executives.
In Japan, there has been an increasing trend toward the realization of true decentralized society, due to the recent progress of decentralization reform and the trend seems to continue growing in the future. Under such circumstances, development of human resources in the field of local governance (local autonomy) has become increasingly import in order to create unique and revitalized local communities on their own initiative. It means that Local Autonomy College plays a more important role of fostering general policy-making capabilities and administration management abilities of local public entity executives.
In addition, Local Autonomy College has another function as a research center on local autonomy. It conducts researches and studies on local autonomy-related systems in and outside Japan and their operations.
Now, Local Autonomy College has been relocated to the city of Tachikawa in Tokyo in April 2003 to meet the training demands of local public entities more adequately than before and to enhance the training environment.
History of Local Autonomy College
| August 1, 1953 | Law for Establishment of Local Autonomy College enforced (abolished in June 1984 to be integrated in the Law for Establishment of the Ministry of Home Affairs; this ministry was succeeded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on January 6, 2001) |
| October 1, 1953 | Local Autonomy College opened (at Azabu-Zaimokucho, Minato-ku, Tokyo using a building owned by the local public employees mutual association) |
| May 1, 1954 | Relocated to Azabu-Fujimicho, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
| May 10, 1954 | Division 2 Course launched |
| June 1, 1955 | Division 3 Course launched |
| May 6, 1958 | Trainee Residence “Reitakuryo” completed |
| January 12, 1961 | Former College Building completed |
| June 1, 1971 | Trainee Residence “Senshinryo” completed |
| March 24, 1976 | Reference Library completed |
| August 2, 1983 | Specialized Course for Tax Accounting launched |
| September 19, 1988 | Division 1 Special Course launched |
| August 21, 1996 | Division 2 Special Course launched |
| April 6, 2000 | Specialized Course for Auditing launched |
| January 6, 2001 | Placed under control of the newly-established Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications |
| November 29, 2002 | Current College Building completed |
| March 31, 2003 | Closed the former College Building at Azabu-Fujimicho |
| April 1, 2003 | Opened the currentCollege Building at Midori-cho, Tachikawa city |
| September 2, 2003 | Specialized Course for Tax Collection launched |
| September 17, 2003 | Started a joint lecture of Division 1 and 2 Special Course |
| October 29, 2004 | A School Song of current College Buildingof Local Autonomy College completed |
| July 1, 2008 | Division 3 Course for New Era/Local management Course launched |
Approx. 53,000 graduates
Local Autonomy College has accepted about 1,000 trainees a year for more than 50 years since its establishment. There are around 53 thousand graduates who studied at the College as of the end of academic year 2008.
Graduates playing active roles across the country
Graduates play the leading role in promotion of decentralization, fully exerting their skills they have developed through training.
| Prefectures: | Cities: | Towns and Villages: |
| Vice Governors:5 | Mayors:43 | Mayors:66 |
| Deputy Mayors:113 | Deputy Mayors:72 |
(As of April 30, 2007)
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| Former College Building (Azabu) | Current College Building ( Tachikawa) |
Advanced and broad skill development
Comprehensive Training in the Full Residential College System
Development of human resources that lead local autonomy in the era of decentralization
Today, decentralization is in the phase of implementation and local autonomy is in the new era. It has been more important to develop human resources expected to play a leading role in local autonomous administration to produce local communities with high originality and vitality.
The main objective of the College is to make comprehensive cultivation of policy making capabilities and administrative management abilities of local public employees that lead local public authorities. To attain this goal, the College invites lecturers in a wide variety of fields to provide high-level and
specialized training.
A wide range of training courses and extensive exchange among trainees
Trainee Residence "Reitakuryo" and "Senshinryo"
Local Autonomy College has a wide spectrum of training courses and disciplines to systematically provide comprehensive training that covers all administrative fields undertaken by local public authorities.
Trainees sent from local public bodies throughout the country can obtain a wide range of knowledge and views beyond the framework of specific geographical or administrative areas through participation of camp training under the full
residential system and active exchange with other trainees.
Highly practical and advanced lectures
Lecture at a large lecture room
Local Autonomy College offers a wide variety of disciplines, not only key subjects like jurisprudence, economics, public administration, public policies and local administration and finance but also new public management (NPM) theories, citizens' participation theories and risk management studies. The College strives to cultivate the skills for quick and sound response to changes in social and economic circumstances and citizens' needs, centered on practical abilities that are directly connected with local autonomy.
The general training course deals with key political issues faced by local public entities to provide systematic and intensive training on environment and welfare policies.
Training programs that suit the needs of the times
Debate
Local public entities are faced with such political issues as the aging society with fewer children, aggravating global environmental problems and response to globalization and IT revolution. On these matters, Local Autonomy College provides not only lectures but also group projects and debates for trainees' voluntary work to develop more practical capabilities.
Outline of the training courses
General training
| Course | Level of intended trainees | Duration | Frequency /year |
Number of trainees planned for FY2008** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division 1 | Equivalent to Section Chief, Deputy Division chief or above in prefectures and cities (Officials of towns and villages can also be admitted by request.) | 6 months | Twice | 260 trainees (130 trainees) |
| Division 2 | Equivalent to Section Chief and above in municipalities (excluding designated cities) | 3 months | 3 times | 600 trainees (200 trainees) |
| Special course for Division 1 and Division 2 | Equivalent to Section Chief or above in prefectures and municipalities | 3 weeks* | Once | 120 trainees |
| Division 3 | [Prefecture/Designated City Course] Division Chief or above in prefectures, designated cities, core cities, etc. (Officials of other municipalities can also be admitted by request.) |
3 weeks | Once | 40 trainees |
| [Municipality Course] Equivalent to Division Chief or above in municipalities (excluding designated cities) |
3 weeks | Once | 100 trainees | |
| [New Era/Local Management Course] Equivalent to Section Chief or above in prefectures and municipalities |
3 weeks | Once | 80 trainees |
- *In this course, correspondence training, including e-learning, will be implemented prior to the residential training.
- **The figure in parenthesis shows the limit to the number of trainees per course.
Specialized training
| Course | Intended Trainees | Duration | Number of times | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tax Administration | [Tax Collection Course] Tax collection officials in prefectures and municipalities |
6 weeks | Once | 100 trainees |
| [Tax Accounting Special Course] Senior tax administrators in prefectures and municipalities |
3 months* | Once | 70 trainees | |
| Training | Senior training staff in prefectures and municipalities | 2 weeks | Once | 60 trainees |
| Auditing | Auditing staff in the position equivalent to section chief or above in prefectures and cities | 3 months | Once | 30 trainees |
- *In this course, correspondence training, including e-learning, will be implemented prior to the residential training.
Aspiring to be civil servants that pioneer the future
Enjoy training camps
At training camps, trainees meet new people and enjoy discussions of various issues.
From the welcome party, to the food and sports festival, to the farewell party, a spirit of camaraderie is built. The collegial relationships and the spirit of autonomy developed at the Local Autonomy College are lasting assets for trainees.
Club activities
The College also offers various activities such as folk song, tea party, tennis, volleyball, jogging, etc. Trainees enjoy these activities through their clubs.
Alumni―the national network of graduates
The Association of Local Autonomy College Graduates functions as a network for maintaining the collegial relationships developed by trainees at the college. Through the network, alumni continue to develop their sense of unity from their workplaces throughout the nation.
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| Club activity Folk song | Club activity Tea party |
Backing training in local public entities
Activities as central training institution
Research on training circumstances and provision of information
Today, with decentralization in the phase of execution as well as aging population with fewer children, globalization and IT revolution, the challenges faced by local public entities are being further advanced and specialized.
Under these circumstances, training sessions, which are held by local public authorities and aim at further skill improvement of local public employees responsible for local administration, are becoming advanced and diversified.
Local Autonomy College performs research on actual implementation of training at local public entities and provides the results to local public employee training institutions across the country for enrichment of training quality.
Support for Local Autonomy Training Council
Local Autonomy College provides indirect support to Local Autonomy Training Council, which is an organization for voluntary research and communication among more than 500 institutions including training institutions of local public entities and personnel sections.
Library and reference library
Library
To serve the studies of trainees, Local Autonomy College is equipped with a library with some 32,000 books in law, economics, local self-government and others. Open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., it can be used for preparations for lectures and seminars.
The reference library stores about 26,000 documents, some of which are historically valuable ones on the local self-government system since the Meiji period.
Material development
Local Autonomy College undertakes development of materials for local public employee training to cultivate practical thinking power based on the seminar method called “Harvard Case Method.” These developed materials cover, as sample policies, specific efforts against such administrative issues as environment, welfare and community building faced by local public authorities. Thus, they are designed to enable the development of abilities of trainees to creatively discover problems, to effectively cope with them, to work out and assess policies and to deal with legal matters. Also, individual sample cases are intended to clarify the policy making process of the organization concerned and will be helpful to verification of policy creation processes and practical policy making at individual organizations.
Gekkan Jichi Forum (Monthly Local Autonomy Forum)
"Gekkan Jichi Forum"
Gekkan Jichi Forum is a general educational journal for local public employees contributed by top-class authors in their respective fields. Formerly entitled “Jichi Kenshu” (Local Autonomy Training), it has over 50 years of history. Dealing with various problems tackled by local public entities every month, it also plays a role as an alumni magazine for College graduates.
Network of LAC expanding to the world
- Another aspect of LAC -
EROPA LOCAL GOVERNMENT CENTER
Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA) is a non-governmental international organization established for the purpose of improving local government in the Asia Pacific region, and joined by 10 countries including Japan.
As a local government center of EROPA, Local Autonomy College invites trainees from various countries to provide international training on Japanese local administration. Also, the College makes publication of “Comparative Study,” which is a book on comparative study on local administration. The College participates in EROPA general assembly and executive committee as well as study meeting held every other year at one of its member countries to enhance the partnership with other countries.
Also, based on the request of EROPA, Local Autonomy College in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) conducts a 6-week training course designed for public employees from developing countries who are engaged in local administration. This course was first introduced in 1964 and has drawn about 10 participants every year since then.
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| EROPA General Assembly in Iran, 2007 | International training course 2008 at International Seminar Room |
College facilities and surroundings
Full of convenience and enjoyment Overview of Local Autonomy College
- (1)Admission limit
Approx. 1,000 trainees - (2)Facilities scale
- - Land lot area
50,000 m2 - - Total floor area
28,660 m2
- - Land lot area
- (3)Facilities descriptions
- - Management Building
- - Training Building
Three large lecture rooms (one for 430 persons and the two others for 130 persons each)
Two medium lecture rooms for 60 persons each
13 Seminar rooms for 24 persons each
Others - - Gymnasium
With volleyball courts and a training gym - - Welfare Building
Dining hall (280 seats), library, assembly room, group discussion room, etc. - - Residential Building
426 single rooms with bath and restroom, four special lodging rooms for the disabled, four special lodging rooms for lecturers, etc. - - Sporting field (91.6 m x 95.0 m)
- - Four tennis courts
- (4)Traffic access
- - To JR Tachikawa Station
About 40 minutes by Super Rapid Service from Tokyo Station
About 55 minutes by Rapid Service from Tokyo Station
About 25 minutes by Super Rapid Service from Shinjuku Station
About 40 minutes by Rapid Service from Shinjuku Station - - About 3 minutes from Tachikawa-Kita Station to Takamatsu Station by monorail
- - About 3 minutes' walk from Takamatsu Station to Local Autonomy College
- - To JR Tachikawa Station
Outline of major facilities
| Administration Building | Training Building1,2 |
Dining Hall, Library & Clubhouse |
Dormitory (Reitaku and Senshin) | Hall/ Gymnasium |
Sporting field |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Three aboveground floors
Total area of 3,508 m2 Instruction Department, Professors, General Section and Research Department. Local Autonomy Library |
Three aboveground floors and a basement
Total area of 5,597 m2 Three large Lecture Rooms, two medium Lecture Rooms, thirteen Seminar Rooms, Computer room, and International Seminar Room. |
Two aboveground floors and one underground floor
Total area of 3,892 m2 Library Dining Hall Conference Room Computer Lab Assembly Room |
Eight aboveground floors and one underground floor
Total area of 14,131 m2 426 single rooms with bathroom 4 special lodging rooms for the disabled 4 special lodging rooms for the lecturers Room area of 16.00 m2 Recreation Room Clerk Room Storage Room Other rooms |
Auditorium and Fitness room Total area of 1,347 m2 |
Two baseball fields
Total area of 91.6m ～95.0m 4 tennis courts |
Surrounding Area
Local Autonomy College
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Government of Japan
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10－1 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo 190-8581 TEL 042-540-4500 FAX 042-540-4510 Email: jichidai-syomu@soumu.go.jp Website: http://www.soumu.go.jp/jitidai/english.htm |