The Minister's Secretariat (MS) plays the role of "leading the ministry" by determining the way the ministry should be headed during the planning process, making the policies of the MIC and during the process of drafting bills.
The MS also oversees the entire MIC and coordinates work within the ministry to be smoothly conducted, thereby making the ministry livelier.
The Administrative Management Bureau (AMB) performs the following functions to ensure the comprehensive, effective and efficient execution of administration.
The Administrative Evaluation Bureau (AEB) is working together with 50 Regional offices nationwide to conduct (1) administrative evaluation bureau surveys, (2) policy evaluation, and (3) administrative counseling.
And as the demand is high for switching from the conventional administrative system, the AEB will work to step up its functions even further in order to restore public confidence in administration.
To help local public entities ensure smooth administration, the Local Administration Bureau (LAB) works to promote regional decentralization, plans and drafts regional autonomous programs, develops regional administrative systems, promotes new wide-ranging collaborations, builds a network system for Basic Resident Registers, creates energetic communities, promotes electronic autonomous bodies, internationalizes the regional level, develops and enhances regional local governmental employee programs, and works on other wide-ranging measures.
Regarding the election system, which is the most important system for the citizens to participate in politics, the LAB plans and drafts its measures in an attempt to establish a fair and appropriate election system.
The Local Public Finance Bureau (LPFB) drafts plans for regional finance, thereby ensuring and coordinating funds for administrative services that meet various inhabitant needs, such as arranging welfare, school education, fire defense, roads, rivers, and other forms of social infrastructure.
The LPFB also works to reform the regional financial system to promote regional sovereignty reforms.
Local taxes are an important element of financing for prefectures and municipalities to provide education, welfare, fire defense, rescue, garbage management, and various other inhabitant services. Local taxes are therefore a membership fee for the community. By enhancing and securing these local taxes, we proceed with decentralization reforms and plan and draft local taxation revisions corresponding to changes in the Japanese socioeconomic community.
- Global ICT Strategy Bureau
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ICT* is the main source of the growth ability and competitiveness of the Japanese economy. To work to enhance international competitiveness in the ICT field will be a great driving force for growth of the overall Japanese economy. The Global ICT Strategy Bureau (GISB), in order to develop comprehensive and strategic policies in the ICT field from a global perspective, promotes research and development, standardization activities, and overseas deployment activities in this field in the context of strengthening international competitiveness in a coordinated manner. The GISB is committed to comprehensive policy measures beyond conventional organizational frameworks without being bound by the communication/broadcasting dichotomy.
*Information & Communications Technology
- Information and Communications Bureau
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The Information and Communications Bureau (ICB) promotes the digitalization of broadcasting and advanced use of Information & Communications Technology (ICT). The ICB also works to promote the privatization of the postal service.
- Telecommunications Bureau
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According to the use of both broadband and mobile IP networks, rapid structural changes have been proceeding in the information-communications field, which has reached a major turning point.
The Telecommunications Bureau works to further disseminate and deploy telecommunications infrastructure and promote the development of a secure and reliable environment for using information-communications infrastructure, as well as the efficient use of radio waves and establishment of a globally-advanced wireless broadband environment to handle such changes.
Statistics are basic materials indispensable to socioeconomic affairs and civic life, which serve as a "compass," helping the administration to plan and draft administrative measures and citizens to make appropriate decisions. As socioeconomic conditions change and statistics become increasingly important, the Statistics Bureau and the Director-General for Policy Planning (Statistical Standards) arrange and provide statistics to meet needs.
The statistical system of the Japanese government is decentralized, in that each ministry produces statistics for its own policy purposes.
The Director-General for Policy Planning (Statistical Standards), being responsible for coordinating the statistical activities of different ministries, plans basic policy considerations for official statistics, examines statistical survey plans for approval, establishes statistical standards, and coordinates international statistical affairs.
The Director-General for Policy Planning (Pension) conducts surveys and planning on the pension program for public employees, which is the oldest system of its kind in Japan, and implements payment policy including appropriate disbursement to recipients.