On April 19, 1993 the investigation commission reported, "Towns over 300,000 and greater than 100 square kilometers, will be handled as a core city."

"Core cities will follow the same guidelines as ordinance-designated cities." This report does not address the issue of the expected transfer of power to ordinance-regulated cities.

The decentralization issue originated with the special case of the three cities, Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

Early in the Taisho era, big cities made rapid progress. Then three more cities were added: Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya. Discussion of these became the theme when discussing special cities.

Reading through the records of Kobe�s assembly shows that chairman Ohta and ten members of the assembly once petitioned the Prime Minister to create a Special City plan. This plan, however, was rejected by the House of Peers. Five of the cities kept persevering to pass the plan. In 1929, during Showa era, the Imperial Assembly established the Big City System Investigation Commission. W.W.II stopped this Commission. In 1945, after the war, five cities persistently and repeatedly worked to realize the plan. Finally, in 1946, the GHQ suppressed the Department of the Interior, and the Big City System Investigation Commission was reestablished. The five cities (including Kobe) repeatedly kept the intense movement for decentralization. Nevertheless, in 1956, this plan was established as the ordinance-designated cities system. It is possible to call this the result of compromise.

Therefore, Mr. Mayor, it is my opinion that the transfer of power to the ordinance-designated cities must be at the same level as the Big City system. Otherwise, we will have to propose a discussion of transfer of power and the sharing of tax income between ordinance-designated cities. I would like to have the mayor's opinion on this matter.

Next. The people in the city do not get the benefit of the Yen's power, in spite of today's exchange rate $1.00 US to �100. People can not attain an affluent life because of the expensive costs of housing, food, traffic, communication, education and many more things. This is true although the Japanese have leading salaries in the world that compare with the United States in money value.

How can we welcome times where 1 dollar is �100? In my opinion it is necessary to plan and implement a change to a system focussed on living people instead of the system of inter-department enterprises and bureaucracy. What role will the mayor of such a major city take in this situation? I would like to have mayor�s opinion.

Finally, decentralization is on the move not only in Japan but also at all over the world. Countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland have achieved brilliant success since middle of 1980s with Free Communes. These countries decentralize by sharing power from the Country or Prefecture down to the City or Town. France, (a country whose strong bureaucracy has existed since Napoleon�s imperial government), has enacted a decentralization law under President Mitterand. France declared "realize decentralization, never reverse". In addition, and of symbolic significance, France has stipulations prohibiting supervision or guardianship by upper levels of autonomy over the lower levels autonomy.

In the modern world, strong countries divide and set artificial borders of weak countries by sheer power. The nationalism where countries guard their borders by mobilizing armed forces is create problems of racial tension and localism.

Beyond the member states of the E.U.C., even local self-governing bodies in Europe, including Switzerland and Austria, have signed the European local autonomy charter. The 10^th clause of this conference's charter empowered the autonomous local entities to affiliate with international organizations.

In due time, Japan will be decentralized and the head each autonomous community will create a city suitable for its Citizens. Competition within each city will spark citizen involvement in the administration of each town. People can choose in which city they will live and in which circles they will socialize. One may live in Tokyo, one in Kobe, another in Seoul, or some in Peking or Shanghai. When this vision is realized, I think people will understand the futility of war and will respect other cultures and races. That era will finally be able to accomplish their search for peace and steadiness.