ABSTRACT
In welfare state expansion, central government alone cannot afford to assume an ever-increasing level of responsibility for an increasing range of state activity. The Japanese government acknowledges that delegation to local authorities is inevitable. Activities of local authorities thus become a significant part of national policy. Japanese central bureaucrats expect local authorities to faithfully implement their policy preferences. To this end, they use local authorities to gain access to specific information, hands-on expertise, mobile human resources, and financial burden-sharing.
