“Essential Guide for Council Members”is a must-read book that clearly explains the practical knowledge necessary for town and village council members. It offers valuable insights for residents as well and is surprisingly easy to read.
Why don’t we read it together, a little at a time? See Archive
Petition
I apologize for jumping ahead, but in light of recent developments that touch on the very foundation of local self-government, I would like to focus on “petitions” from Part III: The Practice of Legislative Deliberation / Chapter 4: Review of Petitions and Appeals.
A petition is an act of requesting the national government or a local public entity to take specific measures regarding matters within their jurisdiction. It is one of the fundamental human rights guaranteed by Article 16 of the Constitution of Japan; it may be exercised regardless of nationality or age (including by minors and foreign nationals), and any unjust discrimination based on the submission of a petition is prohibited.
Petitions can be “submitted directly” to local governments or “submitted to the council” through a council member’s endorsement. The latter mechanism is designed to “reflect the will of the residents through petitions to the council, which serves as their representative body, from the perspective of local self-government,” thereby “encouraging the council to work toward realizing those goals.” On February 27, I submitted a petition using both of these methods.
As a general rule, petitions submitted to the legislature are referred to a committee for review “to ensure due diligence, given the unique nature of petitions as specific requests submitted by residents.” As an exception, “urgent matters” or those “where the conclusion is clear and there appears to be no objection from the full legislature” may be deliberated in the plenary session without being referred to a committee.
This time, Petitions No. 1 and No. 2 regarding school consolidation were deliberated in the plenary session without being referred to a committee, and were rejected by a vote of 3 in favor and 8 against.
The petition submitted directly to the Board of Education was neither distributed to the board members nor brought to their attention by the secretariat, and it was not mentioned at all during either the Board of Education’s regular meeting or the Comprehensive Education Conference.
The fact that the council is proceeding without carefully examining the contents of a petition questioning the fundamental approach to the school consolidation process, and that the Board of Education is effectively ignoring it, raises serious questions about how the voices of this town’s residents are being treated.
Column published in Issue No. 45 of “Watson”, the newsletter of the Kamijima Town Local Government Study Group.