Problems of information disclosures in Japanese local governments

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to survey operations and services of official-paper disclosure systems in Japanese local governments from users' point of view, and from this, to point out some problems of current operations. Data are collected from three sources: 1. data from the survey by Asahi Shimbun, 2. pamphlets and brochures published by local governments, explaining official-paper disclosures, and 3. data collected by interviews of officers responsible for disclosure.Major findings out of the survey are as follows: (1) Most existent systems are not user-friendly. Their services are not organized systematically, but have the the danger of being offered by staff's personality and good will. (2) Almost all catalogs don't have retrieval abilities, but are only inventories of official papers. So that most users can't serch documents by themselves. They must necessarily depend on the staff.In conclusion, services of information disclosures in Japanese local government have the danger of being applied by local governments' discreation.