The system and process of regional planning in Denmark: Based on the case of Nordjyllands Regional Plan.

The purpose of the article is to investigate the features of planning processes and negotiation among the governments on national, regional and municipal levels, and the public involvement in the regional planning in Denmark. The major findings are as follows: 1) In Denmark the regional councils have the responsibility for planning, and they are assisted by specialist planners throughout the planning process. In Japan the responsibility for regional (and municipal) planning is the mayor's alone, assisted by generalists in a rota system. This gives rise to a political and an administrative culture that are very different between the two individual countries. 2) As a principal rule the Danish regional and municipal (planning) authorities are autonomous, but the upper governments may control local autonomy to some extent by so-called 'framework control'. 3) Public involvement is an integrated part of the Danish planning process, and various measures are utilized for promoting public involvement. 4) Denmark has the problems such as large-scale retail shops outside cities and depopulation in countryside like Japan. Against these problems planning are handled as a tool with varying success.