Four years ago the IT Strategic Headquarters headed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi formulated an e-Japan Priority Policy Programme that called for the "formation of the world's most advanced information and telecommunication networks" by 2006, with a view to transforming Japan into the "world's most advanced information technology society". With this completion date looming, how has the Japanese e-government effort fared? Back in 2001 the e-Japan Strategy gave greater coherence to the development of the government’s online strategy, and signalled a green light to a sudden and sustained increase in government spending – annual spending on the government network immediately jumped by 2 per cent to US$18.9 billion.
According to Ryoichi Nakagawa, Director-General of the National Statistics Centre, and formerly an official with the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications, the e-Japan Strategy marked a realisation that e-government was impossible unless government agencies intensively reformed public administration. Not only did electronic information have to be handled in the same manner as paper-based information, but government agencies had to speed up the digitisation of citizen and business information. In each case, establishing the government network was seen as key to progress.
Networked government
Japan now has one of the most advanced e-government networks in the world, embracing a three-tiered government network, along with supporting infrastructure such as electronic signature and authentication with smart card, electronic payment and a legal framework to support online government.
There are three network systems used for e-government: Kasumigaseki WAN (KWAN), the Local Government WAN (LGWAN) and the Basic Residential Registers Network System (Jyuki Net).
KWAN is the National Government WAN connected with all Ministries' LAN (which is predicated on at least one PC per government employee). It started life in January 1997 in order to promote a more effective approach to information management within government departments, and to replace paper-based processes with electronic filing.
Currently the KWAN supports the government email system, the database on government businesses, the information support system of the Diet (parliament), the database on members of the government advisory bodies, the database of government white papers, a common information retrieval system, the database on computer procurement and the document exchange and certification system.
LGWAN is connected to local governments, prefectures, cities and other municipalities by the use of Local Government Public Key Infrastructure, and interconnects with KWAN.
Jyuki Net links all municipalities and prefectures so that the central and local governments can share resident card information (Name, Address, Sex, and Date of Birth and etc.). This information sharing between different tiers of government is a prerequisite for devolving government service delivery to local administrations, but it provoked public controversy regarding security and privacy issues.
Strategy revisited
Realising that the initial e-Japan Strategy had focused almost entirely on building out the government networks, the government issued ‘e-Japan Strategy II’ in 2003 as a corrective. This second articulation of e-government intent focused on user benefits in order to promote a practical use for the expensively established network infrastructure.
Following on from the revision of the e-Japan Strategy, a series of practical measures were drawn up in an ‘e-Government Building Plan’ last year, resulting in the first comprehensive plan to combine general principles with detailed e-government action plans for every ministry and government agency by the end of this year.
First fruit
Two examples of this renewed emphasis on service delivery are the national e-government portal – www.e-gov.go.jp – and the ‘One-Stop Service System for Procedures related to Car Ownership’ (OSS).
The e-government portal was established in April 2001 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Initially the emphasis was on the provision of information and the timely syndication of content from different government agencies.
"The portal has good search functionality to access information from all ministries, agencies and other public organizations,” says Hiroshi Chiba, Deputy Director of Information Systems Management Office with MIC. “You can find the information on government web sites, official documents, laws, as well as links to government statistics, patent rights, procurement, job offers, and local government."
But the portal is set for some major changes in 2005. This year the electronic filing of information by citizens will be added to the site, aggregating all existing e-filing procedures from government departments. This will have profound consequences for how government agencies view cross-agency collaboration. Citizens will be able to complete government forms online without first having to research which government agency is responsible.
“The integration of e-filing systems will increase the use of e-Gov and promote the cooperation between government agencies,” says Chiba.
Meanwhile the significance of OSS is that it tackles the car registration process from a cross-agency perspective. Citizens looking to buy or sell their cars will be able to complete all the necessary procedures online using the OSS system, without having to interact separately with multiple parties.
"OSS will bring a lot of benefit to not only car users but also car dealers and government agencies concerned,” says Akihiko Nagano, Senior Planning Officer for OSS with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT). “We are expecting that many car users can actually feel the convenience of online government services by the success of OSS. OSS will also contribute to the promotion and development of electronic applications for other government procedures."
OSS is currently undergoing pilot tests by the MLIT along with other government agencies. Following the completion of the trials it is expected that OSS will come into operation in December this year, bringing together MLIT, police departments, prefectures, insurance companies, banks and car dealers.
Conclusion
E-government both supports and demands reform of government. On the one hand it provides for a more streamlined, transparent and effective administration, one that provides better service. And on the other hand e-government requires existing processes and systems to be revised before introducing automation.
By many measures Japan’s e-government initiative has made great progress, helped along by strengths in technology, finance, management talent and widespread citizen familiarity with broadband and wireless applications. Yet it is a fact that bureaucratic sectionalism and inflexibility remain key inhibitors to reform. Overinvestment in networks has also made it politically difficult to take advantage of new disruptive technologies.
A fresh commitment to citizen-centric services, as opposed to back-office infrastructure, now looks set to see the Japanese public sector make a range of new services available in 2005. A mature network infrastructure will make it technically possible to coordinate cross-agency collaboration. However government agencies need to pay more attention to marketing government services, and to researching citizen priorities, if they are to ensure that the proliferation of citizen services before the end of 2005 is justified by an increase in citizen involvement.
Autor: Manabu Muta
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 05.05.2005
