Final chapterwebversion 1 1 This is the first of a set of papers and a book to be published through the World Bank Institute and Oxford University Press. This Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Japanese “Top-Down” Approach to Decentralization. All other chapters will be posted on this page no later than July 1, 2001 Understanding Japanese Central-Local Government Relations: Perspectives, Models and Salient Characteristics Michio Muramatsu and Farrukh Iqbal Introduction The twentieth century has provided rich material for the study of inter-governmental systems or the set of fiscal, administrative and legal inter-relationships that exist among municipal, provincial and national levels of government. The century has experienced a great variety of inter-governmental arrangements brought about by events such as the rise and fall of socialist regimes in Russia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and China, the advent of a large number of nation-states and new, independent governments through the process of