Evaluating administrative reform: an insiders report

Abstract

Editor's Note. In this report, Professor Masujima provides an insider's look at the issues and trends involved in the past two decades of administrative reform in Japan. Born in Tokyo in 1936, Masujima graduated from the Tokyo University Law Department in 1959, entering the Administrative Management Agency (Gyosei Kan'richo, later Somucho) in the same year. He moved up through the ranks of the civil service and was appointed Director-General of the Administrative Management Bureau in 1990. He served in this capacity through 1993, and thus was directly responsible for administrative reform under the Kaifu, Hosokawa, Hata and Murayama administrations. His long and distinguished career in the government makes him uniquely placed to tell this story, which serves as the backdrop for more theoretical articles in this special issue. As Director-General, Masujima was in charge of the secretariat for The Provincial Council for Promotion of Administrative Reform during both its deliberative and much of its implementation stages. He has been directly involved in administrative reform at the highest level longer than any other Japanese public servant. During his career, he was largely responsible for drafting four major pieces of legislation: (1) the personnel reduction plan (implemented under the Total Staff Number Act) which was begun in 1986 and has been regularly renewed thereafter; (2) a major revision of the National Government Organization Law, which promotes flexibility in bureaucratic structures; (3) the Privacy (Personal Data Protection) Act, which regulates the use of computerized data concerning individuals; and (4) the Administrative Procedures Act, which promotes procedural fairness, transparency and standardization across bureaucratic agencies. In 1995, Masujima retired from the bureaucracy to become a professor in the Faculty of Policy Studies at Chuo University. He has published several articles and a major book on the subject of administration reform, Gyosei Kaikaku no Shiten (Perspectives on Administrative Reform), 1996. He has also edited an English-language volume with Ouchi Minoru (The Management and Reform of Japanese Government, 1995). We are pleased to include his insider's report in this special issue of SSJJ.