The Politics of Subnational Spaces in Japan and China

Social scientists are frequently concerned with the “local”. However, the social and spatial boundaries of the “local” are often elusive, and subject to change. This is particularly true in Japan, where local administrative boundaries were abruptly redrawn in a wave of municipal mergers in the mid-2000s, initiating an ongoing process of local socio-spatial readjustments. In China, the “local” is the local in center-local relations between the Party central and the provinces, prefectures, counties, and towns. Since the onset of economic reform, the party-state has been incrementally changing the territories of these levels of government into cities. Subnational territories are not constitutionally guaranteed, and the state maintains powers to establish new cities, enlarge and merge existing ones and eliminate others. The two speakers address political and economic consequences implied by differing delineations of subnational spaces.