二次大戰後所新制定的日本憲法，特別規定了包括四項條文的一獨立章節以保障地方自治。因此，地方政府便能夠在憲法的保障之下，有權經營自己的事務與行政。而在地方稅法及憲法的規定下，地方政府便可以開始徵收自己的稅收。只是在實際上，地方並非可以如憲法的保障般，運用自己的權限，尤其在財政制度上，地方政府往往受限於中央政府，因而無法真正的達到憲法所保障的地方自治。所以自從1990年代起，包括地方稅制之改革，許多地方分權之政策被積極地推動，這也使得地方政府能夠有更大的權限去處理自己的財政。而本文便是試著以行政與法的觀點，去探討此一地方分權與地方税制之改革的問題。
After the Second World War, the new Japanese Constitution established a separate chapter with four articles concerning local self-government. Local governments, therefore, shall have the right to manage their affairs and administration under the guarantee of the Constitution. Under provisions of the Local Tax Law and the Constitution, local authorities are able to levy and collect local taxes. In fact, however, local governments cannot exercise their rights as precisely as the Constitution designed. Local governments are circumscribed by the central government; especially the fiscal system hinders the independence of local governments. Therefore, local governments attempted to achieve genuine autonomy that would comply with the constitutional demand. Including the reform of local tax system, many policies of decentralization were executed since the 1990s. Localauthorities obtained more power to deal with their local finance. This paper attempts to study the decentralization and reform of local tax from the viewpoints of administration and law.
