Japan Tests Its City Limits-Under pressure from a central government bent on saving money, municipalities are merging faster than you can say 'loss of identity.'
By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer
YAMAGUCHI, Japan — Yuji Shinya, 38, doesn't regret having stayed in this rural village of 2,000 after he left school.
Sure, many of his classmates make far more money in the big city than he ever will running a small general store. But he enjoys the slower pace. He enjoys knowing he's part of a tightknit community where local officials are neighbors and problems can be worked out informally.
But powerful winds from Tokyo now threaten to bring more big-city ways to Yamaguchi, as pressure builds to merge the village with its 56,000-strong neighbor, Nakatsugawa.
Yamaguchi is hardly alone. Across Japan, hundreds of villages face being shaken up in similar fashion under a push by the central government and ruling party to pare the nation's nearly 3,200 municipalities to 1,000 by 2005.
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