Digital Government and the Foundations of Administrative Systems

Digital Government (デジタルガバメント) is the overall effort to rebuild public services and the way government works around their users, premised on digital technology.

Rather than simply moving paper procedures onto a screen, it rethinks how procedures flow and how data is held. The government has set out action plans and pushed forward efforts by both national and local governments. The other terms in this unit are the foundations that support this effort or the entry points to procedures.

AnalogyLike rebuilding a house by redesigning the floor plan around how its residents move, instead of just adding more appliances to an old one.

How to rememberガバメント comes from the English word "government", so the Japanese name simply combines "digital" and "government".

Government Cloud (ガバメントクラウド) is a cloud service usage environment that the government provides for shared use by national agencies and local governments.

Instead of each organization procuring and running its own servers, information systems are placed on a common environment. The Digital Agency is in charge of setting it up and uses private-sector cloud services that meet its standards. Local governments use it as the destination for moving their standardized business systems.

AnalogyLike households drawing power from the grid instead of each keeping its own generator.

How to remember"Cloud" describes using resources on the far side of a network rather than keeping equipment at hand.

The Base Registry (ベースレジストリ) is the basic data of society that public bodies and others register and publish, and that many procedures and tasks refer to.

Data on people, corporations, land and buildings, and addresses are typical examples. When each agency keeps its own copy of the same information, the contents drift apart and users end up reporting the same details again and again. If every agency refers to one accurate, up-to-date source, data can be linked and procedures simplified.

AnalogyLike everyone looking things up in the same latest edition of a dictionary rather than each keeping a hand-copied one.

How to remember"Base" means foundation and "registry" means an official register.

The Resident Register Network System (住民基本台帳ネットワークシステム, or Juki-net) links each municipality's Basic Resident Register (住民基本台帳) over a network so that identity verification information (本人確認情報) can be used nationwide.

The Basic Resident Register is the municipal register that collects each resident's record. Through Juki-net (住基ネット), information used for identity checks, such as name, address, and resident record code, can be looked up via a nationwide system. This can spare people from attaching a copy of their resident record when they apply to national agencies and others.

AnalogyLike taking the member lists each branch kept separately and making just the fields needed for identity checks available through one nationwide lookup desk.

How to rememberThe short form Juki-net (住基ネット) joins the first characters of jūmin (resident) and kihon daichō (basic register) with "net".

2 past questions on this term 住民基本台帳ネットワークシステム →

e-Gov is the national one-stop e-government portal (電子政府の総合窓口) that lets people apply online for ministries' administrative procedures, search laws and regulations, and more from a single entry point.

Users can apply or check information from the same entry point without hunting for each ministry's website procedure by procedure. The Digital Agency currently runs it. Public comments (パブリックコメント), where people submit opinions on draft policies, are also accepted here.

AnalogyLike the main information desk at a big station: even if you don't know which counter you need, going there first gets you to the right one.

How to remember"e" stands for electronic and "Gov" for government.

Digital Local Government (電子自治体) refers to efforts by prefectures and municipalities to use ICT to digitize procedures for residents and the internal work of their offices.

Examples include accepting applications online, booking public facilities, and issuing certificates at convenience stores. Residents need to visit government offices less often, and staff spend less effort handling paper. In recent years it has also been tied to efforts to standardize business systems and move them onto a shared cloud environment.

AnalogyLike a town hall adding an online counter you can use without worrying about office hours.

How to remember自治体 literally reads as "a body that governs itself", which signals that this is a local rather than national effort.