Abstract
In the early 2000s, Japan instituted the Great Heisei Consolidation, a national strategy to promote large-scale municipal mergers. This study analyzes the impact that this strategy could have on watershed management. We select the Lake Kasumigaura Basin, the second largest lake in Japan, for the case study and construct a dynamic expanded input–output model to simulate the ecological system around the Lake, the socio-environmental changes over the period, and their mutual dependency for the period 2012–2020. In the model, we regulate and control the following water pollutants: total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and chemical oxygen demand. The results show that a trade-off between economic activity and the environment can be avoided within a specific range of pollution reduction, given that the prefectural government implements optimal water environment policies, assuming that other factors constraining economic growth exist. Additionally, municipal mergers are found to significantly reduce the budget required to improve the water environment, but merger budget efficiency varies nonlinearly with the reduction rate. Furthermore, despite the increase in financial efficiency from the merger, the efficiency of installing domestic wastewater treatment systems decreases drastically beyond a certain pollution reduction level and eventually reaches a limit. Further reductions require direct regulatory instruments in addition to economic policies, along with limiting the output of each industry. Most studies on municipal mergers apply a political, administrative, or financial perspective; few evaluate the quantitative impact of municipal mergers on the environment and environmental policy implications. This study addresses these gaps.
Highlights
Since the early 2000s, Japan has enforced a national strategy called the Great Heisei Consolidation that promotes large-scale municipal mergers
This research analyzes the impact of municipal mergers on the watershed management of Lake Kasumigaura
The research findings indicate that, at first, we may be able to eliminate the trade-off between economic activity and water environment improvement within a specific range of water pollutants reduction given that the prefectural government implements an optimal water environment policy, assuming the presence of factors hindering economic growth
Summary
Since the early 2000s, Japan has enforced a national strategy called the Great Heisei Consolidation that promotes large-scale municipal mergers. According to Yokomichi (2007), this consolidation is directed at several issues, including (1) excessive decentralization, (2) the declining birthrate and aging population, (3) the deteriorating financial situation of national and local governments, and (4) the expansion of daily living space Under this national strategy, the number of municipalities in Japan has decreased from 3232 in 1999 to 1718 in 2014 (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications 2020). The ratio of bond issuance for sewerage system construction to municipal finances fell, on average, by 1.5%, to a maximum of 4.7% These changes are attributed to budget efficiency improvement from the mergers. Few studies quantitatively evaluate the impact of municipal mergers on the environment or examine its implications from the perspective of environmental policy.
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