• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.33-44
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• 2022

Over the past decades there has been an increasing demand for decentralization in order to promote the balanced regional growth in South Korea. However, several previous studies have raised concerns regarding the disparity between municipalities as the deviation of power from central government could give wealthy municipalities a clear advantage. The purpose of this study is to better understand the relationship between decentralization and balanced regional growth by examining the Great Heisei consolidation in Japan trying to enact largescale municipal restructuring in association with the promotion of decentralization. In particular, much attention is to be paid to the fact that Japanese central clearly understand the municipalities with small population size could be in a disadvantageous position during the decentralization process so that it has a policy of encouraging mergers to make the municipal system more efficient. Lessons from the case study are summarized in this study in relation to the South Korea's efforts towards the decentralization.