The government launched an office to prepare for the establishment of a planned digital agency Wednesday, with the aim of centralizing the digitization of administrative services.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged government officials at the launch event to promote reform that paves the way for the future without adhering to the interests and precedents of the ministries and agencies they belong to. He also reiterated his intention to submit related bills to an ordinary Diet session next year.
Suga stressed that the envisaged agency will play the role of revolutionizing the nation's social and economic activities as a pillar of a new growth strategy.
To offer encouragement to government officials, Digital Transformation Minister Takuya Hirai, who assumed the post of chief of the preparatory office, said: "We aim at providing services that make people happy. I want you to bring a breath of fresh air into Kasumigaseki [bureaucracy]."
The preparatory office was set up in the information technology strategy office of the Cabinet Secretariat in Tokyo's Toranomon district.
About 50 officials from the secretariat, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, and the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, as well as about 10 people from the private sector are expected to work in the office.
The creation of a digital agency is the centerpiece of the Suga administration's aim to break down the government's vertically integrated structure. The preparatory office will be in charge of designing the digital agency's systems and drafting related bills.
The digital agency's services are expected to cover a wide range of operations, including the spread of the use of My Number cards, which are needed for online applications for government services, and the unification of central and local government systems.
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