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The purpose of this paper is to reveal what kind of intentions local governments and local councils can show and how they can exercise their authority with respect to restricting the expansion of correspondence high schools, such as increasing the number of schools, increasing the number of students, and expanding the student recruitment area. For this purpose, this paper analyzed the minutes and documents of the councils of private schools, the minutes of the prefectural assemblies, and the minutes of the city assemblies. I reviewed the expansion process of the 24 private correspondence high schools (12 in Nagano, 9 in Ibaraki, and 3 in Okinawa prefecture) established in and after 2000. These three prefectures are where such high schools have been expanding remarkably. The findings of this paper are as follows: First, the school capacity and the student recruitment area could be expanded as much as possible if the capacity was expected to be filled or if satellite facilities could be established. Second, the prefectural government mainly expected the expansion of private correspondence high schools to create diverse educational opportunities, collaborate with private educational institutions, and attract more students to the prefecture through in-person classes. On the other hand, they expressed concerns about competition among correspondence high schools, reliability of school organizations, and student recruitment by correspondence high schools established in other prefectures. However, the councils of private schools, which are the approving agencies, were able to approve the application if it met the criteria, even if there were doubts about the application. Third, the municipalities expected similar things to those of the prefectures from the expansion of private correspondence high schools: creation of educational opportunities, contribution to educational activities in the city, enhancing the appeal of the city to students outside the prefecture, and economic benefits gained from students' visits to the city. However, when the provision of closed school buildings and other facilities was involved, the municipalities could discourage the establishment of schools by not providing closed school buildings and other facilities if they had concerns about the school corporation or its establishment plan. These results imply that the prefectural government's private school-related departments and private school councils, which are supposed to supervise private schools, may express concern about the expansion of private correspondence high schools, but it is hard for them to restrict the expansion, and that municipalities, general administrative departments other than private school-related departments, and councils, which have no authority to supervise private schools, can virtually restrict the establishment of private schools. Finally, this paper raises the following issues: How should the establishment/expansion of private correspondence high schools be regulated, and what agencies and organizations should be involved with the approving process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]