worse performance. It also shows that enlarging municipal size is also negatively associated with legislative performance. Suzuki and Ha suggest that policy makers should consider the potential negative impact on democracy on municipal merger. Ikuta concluded that, while there are cases of successful mergers embrace the common characteristics of the region as a whole, there are as well many merged municipalities that struggled with the new shared regional image and identity. The Great Heisei Amalgamations also undertook by misunderstanding of regional brands, medium- and long-term regional competitiveness for achieving the local identity. It needed to be handled with a framework of post-merger period. Rausch suggests that post-merger policy needed a framework such as tourism policy. Rausch pointed out an example of Hirosaki City merger with Iwaki Town and Soma Village which the city tourism policy focused only on Hirosaki images. See also Decentralisation in Japan References Bibliography External links Merger consultation, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (Japanese) Japan Local government in Japan Subdivisions of Japan Political history of Japan