Digest

A joint program of the Japan Economic Research Institute and the Tokyo American Center was held on June 27th. Ms.Jean Heilman Grier,Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements of the United States Department of Commerce,talked "Information Disclosure and Deregulation" . The commentator was Mr.Masashi Katou,a former councilor for the Economic Planning Agency of Japan.

Over and over, Ms. Grier emphasized the non-transparency of the decision making process within the Japanese government on matters concerning national policy.
She pointed out particularly the non-transparency of the matters discussed within the "Advisory Councils (Shingikai)" set up inside of each of the ministries of the government.

Moreover, in the area of administrative guidance from a ministry of the government to an industry, one case was discussed in which it was not understood after all what advice was meant for what enterprise, because the guidance in this case was completely oral -- nothing had been written down or documented.

Hereafter, Japanese society ought to adapt to a system in which citizens can access information at any time when they want to learn the contents of a discussion or the course of a set of discussions, excluding only those cases where national security justifies secrecy.

However, an even bigger problem is the current lack of a sense of accountability among Japanese politicians. It is troublesome when politicians change their policies and positions so quickly with every shift of opinion in their society.