Digital Extraordinary Administrative Advisory Committee

On December 22, 2021, the Prime Minister held the second meeting of the Digital Extraordinary Administrative Advisory Committee at the Prime Minister’s Office.

At the meeting, the participants engaged in discussions on digital principles, the course of action for reforms, and other matters.

Following the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

 “I express my sincere appreciation to the experts for your lively discussions today. At today’s meeting, we formulated five principles as common guidelines for digital reforms, regulatory reforms, and administrative reforms, including the completion of procedures solely on digital platforms as well as automation. The Kishida administration will push ahead with reforms that would fulfill “three-way satisfaction” ? a pursuit of business which is good for the seller, the buyer, and society ? that is to say, good for everyone in accordance with these principles, encourage workplaces suffering from labor shortages and other problems to overcome their challenges, and realize growth toward bringing new form of capitalism into reality.

First, we will review the compatibility of more than 40,000 laws and regulations, notices, and other documents as well as more than 20,000 administrative procedures with the principles, flesh out measures to utilize digital technologies, and draw up a collective review plan next spring. We will also accelerate discussions on the formulation and evaluation of policies that are befitting to the digital age.

Second, regulatory reforms are important initiatives which will create an environment that helps workplaces in local regions to demonstrate their ingenuity, enhance innovation capabilities, and promote the expansion of start-ups, thereby achieving growth and facilitating investments in people. At the Council for Promotion of Regulatory Reform, we will listen to the opinions of those on the frontline and advance concrete discussions.

I visited Aizuwakamatsu City to attentively listen to the voices of the people at the frontline. Going forward, we will focus on regulatory reforms that will improve the lives of the people, including pharmacy digital transformation which leads to workstyle reforms of pharmacists and increased convenience for patients as well as realizing better working conditions for those working at nursing care facilities through the review of staffing utilizing digital technologies.

Third, with regard to speeding up the development of digital infrastructure in local regions, we will set specific goals concerning building optical fiber networks, 5G, data centers, and undersea cables and compile a development plan to achieve the goals next spring.

Fourth, the central government as the promoter of the digital principles will boldly proceed with digital transformation and take the lead in changing itself into a government appropriate to the new era and society. To this end, we will change our organizations into ones that will unleash the willingness and ability of officials at each ministry and agency and appreciate their challenges.

Specifically, we will (1) secure human resources and assign them to areas in real need of them, (2) conduct measures to help talented personnel, including those from outside of the organizations, to play an active role, and (3) create a rewarding and attractive working environment where officials can fully utilize digital technologies and work comfortably.

At the same time, we will design flexible administrative governance that allows for so-called agile process, where we act swiftly and make improvements through trials and errors.

I ask Minister Makishima to work together with Minister Ninoyu to address the issue, with the cooperation of the relevant organizations.”