Statistics serve as a basis for understanding what is going on in society, economic conditions and devising appropriate policies. It is important for the government to foster personnel with professional expertise from a long-term perspective, thereby improving the quality of its statistics.
In response to the revelation of inappropriately processed statistics by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, a committee of experts established by the Cabinet Secretariat has started studying how statistical administrative work should be conducted. The panel is scheduled to put together comprehensive measures to address the issue by the end of the year.
With regard to monthly labor statistics for changes in wages, a ministry official in charge reduced the number of targets subject to surveys at the official's own discretion and neglected to process data necessary for statistics, too. For many years, successive personnel responsible for such work had left the problem uncorrected and continued slipshod processing work without much thought.
In other key statistics, numerical errors and procedural problems were brought to light.
An initial task for each ministry-level organ is to reinforce its organizational governance.
It is essential for them to make their organizational checking systems well arranged so mistakes can be prevented. If there is any error, it should be promptly corrected, and preventive measures should be taken. They also need to lay down standardized procedures and ensure they are thoroughly abided by.
As a tentative measure, the government has assigned 31 statistical analysis examiners to the Cabinet Secretariat. They are tasked with examining statistics processed by each ministry-level organ in their capacity of independent personnel. These examiners must play a role in heightening the precision of surveys by these organizations.
The main focus of a medium- and long-term task should be fostering necessary personnel.
As a result of cuts in public employees, each ministry-level organ has continued to gradually reduce staff at its statistical division. In many cases, such personnel are transferred to other divisions after working on statistics for two or three years. Many have said persistently that few specialists have been fostered in this area.
Perceive changes
There have been changes in consumer behavior due to an increase in businesses using the internet and smartphones.
In perceiving changes of the times and promoting policy measures, the importance of statistics is further growing. It is indispensable to ensure that personnel involved in policy planning -- not just those at statistical divisions -- are skilled in investigative and analytical methods.
It is necessary to establish an organizational culture in which personnel with expertise are fostered beyond the borders of the ministries and agencies and importance is attached to statistics. It is also important to actively recruit people from private-sector research institutions or elsewhere. The experts committee should study measures to achieve this.
Another point at issue is how to improve the efficiency of administrative work for statistical investigations. In conducting surveys for wage structure basic statistics by the labor ministry, research was completed by mail, despite a rule under which researchers must visit offices of the survey targets. This was regarded as a problem.
Although door-to-door surveys can be expected to produce a high percentage of data collection, the method imposes a great burden on both researchers and respondents. It is desirable to shift to online surveys while maintaining continuity, starting where possible.
Some have said more than a few statistics have become less necessary or overlapping due to changes in the structure of industry. Progress should be made in integrating and abolishing some statistics, so limited personnel and budgets can be appropriated to important ones.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 15, 2019)
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