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On becoming the mayor of Date City



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February 13th, 2007
Shoji NishidaCMayor of Date City

I, Shoji Nishida, have been elected as the mayor of Date City and I would like to thank everyone for their support.
Date City came into being on January 1st, 2007, as a result of the consolidation of five smaller municipalities in the Date area, in order to cope with the rapid aging society, in which I had participated as one of the town mayors. However, the municipal merger was accomplished by the enormous efforts of many persons involved, after overcoming all sorts of troubles and difficulties, and yet it is early to be optimistic about this. We have to keep in mind that the merger is not the goal itself, but just a means, and now comes the important part which is to achieve our goal.
From these perspectives, I had created and announced to the public my gLocal Manifesth in running for the mayor election. Now that I have been elected, I must strive with a renewed enthusiasm to make this local manifest become a reality gto create a city in which people can raise their children and age with a sense of securityh, while bringing the passions of the other four town mayors and those involved toward this merger.
Additionally, based on reflections from an over-concentrated political structure, this merger is aiming to achieve a multi-polar and decentralized-merger, in which each townfs lifestyle, culture and tradition are highly valued. However, lacking specific models thus far, we must explore ways to carry out this unprecedented merger. This is very important in terms of achieving an open welfare policy and re-evaluating the good points of the gvillage societyh which we lost sight of, in the tides of modernization and economic development in Japan.
Furthermore, this coming society should not be that of a one-sided service provided by the government to its citizens, but it must be a gcooperationh of both, that of the citizens, the recipients of the administrative service, who must think and act together. In order to do so, we must also promote the disclosure of information so that we can share issues, problems and matters of concern facing our administration with our citizens.
I will do my utmost, in order to achieve the end desired, based on the above viewpoints and I beg your continued support and thank you for your consideration.
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