日本自約1990年代末期推動「平成大合併」，擬將約3200個市町村自治體整併為約1000個，以利區域廣域政策的推動，並減少地方自治體的行政營運費用。然而，自治體的存續為憲法所保障，尤其在民主時代，日本中央政府難以用強制的手段大規模進行市町村自治體的合併。因此，有些市町村在沒有行政區域合併的情況下，選擇用跨域治理的方式達成廣域治理的需要。 而為解決廣大區域的共同治理課題，實務上常以地方自治體間的「行政區域合併」或是跨域治理來因應大都市周邊..

Japan has promoted the Great Heisei Mergers since the late 1990’s. Under this program, the Japanese government planned to merge approximately 3200 villages, towns, and cities into roughly 1000; thereby facilitating the promotion of regional policies and reducing the administration and operation expenditures of local autonomous bodies. However, the existence of such bodies is guaranteed by the Constitution of Japan. Particularly in the current era of democracy, the central government of Japan has experienced difficulty i..

德國地方政府的行政區域重劃源自十九世紀末，甚至更早以前，不過，實施的範圍有限，而且主要集中在工業發達的魯爾區(Ruhrgebiet)。一直到 1960 年代因為社會變遷、經濟蓬勃發展，機動性的提高，人民對地方政府的要求不斷提高，而地方政府卻因為規模太小、行政能力薄弱，難以滿足人民的需求。而另一方面，由於地方自治的實質內容減少，地方自治的意義不斷被質疑，於是為了強化地方政府的治理能力、提升地方政府的行政能力和效率以及落實地方自治的精神，德國各邦政府從 1960..

The territorial reform in Germany at the local government level began in the end of the 19th century or even earlier. But the scale and the scope of its implementation was very limited and happened in the majority of cases in the Ruhr area. During the 1960s, the social situation had changed greatly, the economy boomed, and the mobility increased; the demand of people for local government had gradually enhanced on the one hand, but the real substance of self-administration had evidently reduced, so that the meaning of self- ad..