To streamline such procedures, relevant laws and ordinances are to be revised by the end of fiscal 2005, the source said. As part of an ongoing process of creating an e-government, the ministry called on other ministries and agencies to review 21,000 procedures required for applications or notifications to the central and local governments as stipulated by laws and ordinances.
After the review, the ministry concluded that 374 administrative procedures for which not a single application or notification had been made in the past three years should be abolished.
Among such procedures, deemed no longer necessary due to changes in social and economic conditions, is an application to designate a certified public accountant as qualified to advise a newly certified public accountant.
The number of procedures for which no applications had been filed for three years totaled about 5,000. They included such procedures as those needed to handle extraordinary or exceptional cases, such as the reorganization of a public corporation, and those that are mandatory, such as those needed to comply with international record keeping.
The government decided that 439 procedures requiring the submission of extra documents, such as maps and financial statements that have already been made public and are easily accessible, should be abolished.
The government also decided to reduce the time needed to process 315 procedures, for example cutting the time needed to process an application to begin selling cigarettes at the retail level to two months from the current three months, the source said.
E-government, in which administrative procedures can be handled online and government information can be made available on the Internet, is aimed at streamlining public administration in line with an information-technology oriented society.
Quelle: The Daily Yomiuri, 23.02.2004
