Statistics Bureau Home Page/Guide to Official Statistics in Japan

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	I ) Government Statistical System of Japan

1. Government Statistical System of Japan

	1.	Outline of National Statistical System of Japan
	2.	Official Statistical Laws
	3.	Responsibilities of the Office of Director-General for policy Planning on Statistical Standards (DGPP)
	4.	Statistics Council
	5.	Local Governments
	6.	Statistical Enumerators

1. Outline of National Statistical System of Japan

		There have been established two major official statistical laws: the "Statistics Law"; and the "Statistical Reports Coordination Law," which classify official statistics into "Designated Statistics," "Approved Statistics" and "Notified Statistics."

		The official statistics are prepared under a decentralized system in which each national government statistical agency implements statistical surveys including censuses to compile statistics in the field of its own public administrative jurisdiction, in compliance with the Statistics Law and the Statistical Reports Coordination Law;

		The Director-General for Policy Planning on Statistical Standards (DGPP) within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC; former Management and Coordination Agency under the Prime Minister’s Office) performs the function over the relevant statistical agencies to eliminate and prevent unnecessarily duplicated statistical surveys as well as to maintain consistency among hundreds of official statistics, and also set national statistical standards;

		The Statistics Council makes recommendations to the Minister of MIC in terms of approval or disapproval for statistical survey implementation, etc.

		National official statistics are mostly prepared in close cooperation between the national government and local governments.

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2. Official Statistical Laws

  In the Japanese statistical system, there are two principal laws on statistics, i.e. the Statistics Law and the Statistical Reports Coordination Law.
  Under these laws, statistical surveys are divided into three categories: (i) surveys for Designated Statistics; (ii) surveys for Notified Statistics; and (iii) collection of statistical reports (i.e. surveys for Approved Statistics). Before conducting such surveys, it is required for implementing agencies to apply for reviews of DGPP and approvals of the Minister of MIC.
  DGPP examines these proposed statistical surveys from the viewpoint of the elimination of duplications, simplification of survey content, coordination of survey periods, rationalization of survey methods, and so forth.

a. Statistics Law

The objectives of the Statistics Law are to secure the truthfulness of statistics, eliminate the duplication of statistical surveys, consolidate the statistical system, and to improve the framework of statistics.

(1) Surveys for Designated Statistics

(i) Designation of Designated Statistics

The Minister of MIC designates, and notifies as such to the public, from among the statistics complied by the national and local governments, those that are necessary for the formulation of basic government policies and that are important for national life. (Article 2)
So far, 142 statistics have been designated officially, and 56 of them are currently implemented. (See Table at the end of this section.)

(ii) Approval for implementation of surveys for Designated Statistics

Before conducting a survey for compiling Designated Statistics, it is required to obtain approval of the Minister of MIC. The same applies to suspension or modification of the survey. (Article 7)
The issues required for the Minister's approval are:

	purposes, enquiry items, coverage, and survey implementation periods and methods;
	enquiry items to be statistically processed and questionnaire forms thereof; and
	measures and date of dissemination of the result obtained.

Before enactment and revision or abolition of regulations (ministerial ordinances, etc.) concerning surveys for Designated Statistics, consultation with the Minister of MIC is required. (Article 3)

For Designated Statistics surveys, persons and corporations covered by them are obligated to respond (Article 5); offenders are subject to penalty. (Article 19)

In conducting surveys for Designated Statistics, entry into the spot, inspection, demand for relevant materials, and questioning are allowed; however, these may be executed only for such matters as are given a prior approval by the Minister of MIC. (Article 13)

Part of the affairs concerning surveys for Designated Statistics can be done by the heads of local authorities, etc. according to the relevant Cabinet Orders. (Article 18)

(iii)

Approval for use of completed Designated Statistics survey questionnaire forms for non-statistical purposes

The confidentiality of information on any person, juridical person, or other bodies, collected for official statistical surveys, shall be secured. (Article 14)

No person shall use individual completed Designated Statistics questionnaire forms for non-statistical purposes; however, the questionnaire forms may be used for such non-statistical purposes when the use thereof is approved and made public by the Minister of MIC. (Article 15)

(2) Notified Statistics surveys

The National Government, governments of prefectures and cities, the Bank of Japan, and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry are required to notify the Minister of MIC of the objectives, enquiry items, coverage, time, and method of their planned statistical surveys before they conduct such surveys except for Designated Statistics surveys or approved statistical reports collection ("Approved Statistics" surveys) described below. (Article 8)

b. Statistical Reports Coordination Law

The objective of the Statistical Reports Coordination Law is to reduce the burden imposed by statistical reports collection and to contribute to the improvement of efficiency of administrative activities, by making appropriate coordination of these requests on such matters as measures of collection, report forms and others.

(1) Collection of statistical reports (surveys for "Approved Statistics")

(i) Approval for collecting statistical reports

Before national administrative agencies collect statistical reports from 10 or more persons or juridical persons, they are required to obtain approval of the Minister of MIC. (Article 4)
However, the application of this law will be exempted if:

local governments are to be the reporters;

the method of collection and reporting forms are provided for by some other law or cabinet order; and

the administrative authorities designated by a cabinet order are to collect statistical reports defined by the cabinet order, especially when those whose leakage of the objectives, methods, required data or information, etc. may lead to cause economic or social disorder or national disadvantage.

The matters required for clearance are:

purposes;

coverage of those from whom reports are required;

date or period when reports are collected;

method of collection; and

periodicity of collection.

(ii) Criteria for approval (Article 5)

  The proposed collection of statistical reports shall be appropriately planned from the viewpoint of statistical technique.
  There shall be no need to coordinate the collection of statistical reports proposed and other collection of statistical reports which has been approved by the Minister of MIC.
  Notification is necessary when discontinuing the same survey. When modifying it, approval is newly required. (Article 8)

Table1: Current Designated Statistics (As of March 2006)

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3. Responsibilities of the Office of Director-General for Policy Planning on Statistical Standards (DGPP)

DGPP is responsible for the following matters.

a. Fundamental planning for statistical activities

		examine and plan basic matters, including the development of statistics corresponding to the changes in social and economic condition, and the promotion of reduction of the burden on citizens regarding statistical surveys;
		maintain statistical organizations of local governments, as by allocating grants for employing staffs for prefectural governments to assume a charge of the national statistical work; and
		disseminate statistical knowledge among the general public.

b. Examination and coordination of statistical surveys

		examine and coordinate statistical surveys and approval for the use of questionnaire forms of designated statistics surveys for non-statistical purposes, based on the Statistics Law and the Statistical Reports Coordination Law.
		review the following fiscal year's proposed statistical programmes and requested budgets of each statistical agency, and notify the results of such review to the Ministry of Finance.
		coordinate the work to compile Input-Output Tables in collaboration with the relevant statistical agencies.

c. Establishment of statistical standards

		establish various national statistical classifications, including the Japanese Standard Industrial Classification, the Japanese Standard Occupational Classification, and the Japanese Standard Commodity Classification, taking account of international statistical comparability.
		unify benchmark years for various indices.

d. Coordination of international statistical affairs

		coordinate the policies of our country towards international statistical conferences among the relevant statistical agencies.
		arrange the participation as the Japanese Government in the international statistical programmes, such as the International Comparison Programme for comparing GDP in real value, and the IMF Special Data Dissemination Standards compliance programme.
		provide domestic statistical information to international organizations, foreign governments, etc.
		collect and help utilize international statistical data and information for domestic statistical development.
		arrange the dispatch of statistical experts abroad and the acceptance of them from abroad, etc.

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4. Statistics Council

  The Statistics Council is an advisory body dedicated for deliberations upon the request of the Minister of MIC on such important matters as the approval or disapproval towards proposed Designated Statistics or of proposed collection of statistical reports (i.e. Approved Statistics), and the establishment and overall coordination of statistical standards. It recommends its conclusions on the actions to be taken to the Minister of MIC about these matters.
  The Council consists of less than 11 leading statistical experts appointed by the Minister of MIC. The Chairperson is elected from among the members. DGPP assumes a charge of general affairs for the Council in accordance with the Cabinet order.
  Under the Council ,there are the following 7 working groups studying and deliberating on specific issues related to respective statistical fields: population and labor statistics; agricultural and fishery statistics; mining, manufacturing, and construction industry statistics; transport and distribution statistics; enterprise statistics; statistics on citizens' lives and society; and statistical classifications.

Fig. 1 Government Statistical Organization Chart¹

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5. Local Governments

  Being entrusted by the national government according to the laws, the local governments, i.e. prefectural and municipal governments, are in charge of field operations for a variety of national statistical surveys. They are making a great deal of contribution to ensuring of the accuracy, the reliability and the uniformity of official statistics. They are also promoting the preparation and efficient use of local small-area statistics to meet their own needs.
  The statistics divisions of the prefectural governments play an intermediate role in maintaining close contacts and coordination between the national statistical agencies and the lower local authorities of cities, wards, towns and villages within their Prefectures for facilitating official statistical work. They also carry out their own statistical work such as processing and analyses of statistical data for local population estimates, etc,and conduct statistical studies and training programmes.
  The prefectural governments are granted subsidies for the payment of their statistical staff for national statistical surveys by the National Government through DGPP.
  Within the areas of their jurisdiction, the local governments of cities (wards), towns and villages undertake the survey work for large-scale statistics entrusted to them by the Statistics Bureau within MIC, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, etc.

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6. Statistical Enumerators

  Statistical enumerators are employed on a temporary or part-time basis for field operations of many national statistical surveys.
  The enumerators are usually appointed by the Governors of Prefectures, whereas they are appointed by the Minister of MIC in such a case as for the Population Census.
  The funds for the employment of enumerators are provided at the time of each survey by the ministries and agencies concerned, operational matters, including their status, remuneration, accident compensation, etc., being handled by DGPP.

Fig. 2 Flow Chart for Implementation of National Statistical Surveys

e.g.:

(a)	Population Census (carried out by the Statistics Bureau every five years); Census of Manufactures (carried out by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry every year); and Census of Agriculture and Forestry (carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries every five years)
(b)	Labour Force Survey (carried out by the Statistics Bureau every month); and Statistical Survey of Pharmaceutical Industry Production Trends (carried out by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare every month)
(c)	School Health Survey (carried out annually by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology); and Statistical Survey on Construction (carried out by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)
(d)	Survey of Supply-demand Trends for Oil Products (carried out by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry every month); and Basic Wage Structure Survey (carried out annually by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)
(e)	Statistical Survey of Incorporated Enterprises (carried out by Ministry of Finance every quarter and at every settlement day); and Ships and Seamen Statistics Survey (carried out by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport every year)
(f)	Survey of Research and Development (carried out annually by the Statistics Bureau)
(g)	Vital Statistics (carried out by Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare every month)

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