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Chapter V International Cooperation in Statistics
2. Activities related to international statistical conferences
1. International cooperation
(1) Bilateral cooperation
The Bureau has been promoting exchanges of statistical missions with China every year since 1980. This annual exchange program has greatly boosted technical cooperation in statistical activities between the two countries, for example, on the enumeration system and methodology for China’s 1982 Population Census. A similar annual exchange program with Korea commenced in 1982. In both cases, each country sends a group of statisticians to visit the statistical office of the other.
With respect to Korea, a total of 10 division director level officers of the Korean National Statistical Office had been dispatched and stationed at the Bureau with terms of two years since 1989 until 2011. Mutual understanding and friendship between the two national statistical offices progressed significantly as a result of this program.
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| The 26th Japan Statistical Mission to Korean | The 29th Chinese Statistical Mission to Japan |
In January 2014, the Bureau strengthened cooperative relationship with the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Vietnam by signing the Memorandum of Cooperation. The Bureau has been cooperating with the GSO in the area of statistics and other related fields of mutual interest.
(2) Receiving visitors from abroad
Japan welcomes overseas statistical missions visiting Japan for specific purposes, and provides them with information and data as requested.
Moreover, the Bureau receives more than 100 international visitors every year, and exchanges information and views on the statistical system, as well as the methods and the technologies involved in censuses and statistical surveys including the Population Census, the Retail Price Survey, the Labour Force Survey and the CPI. Trainees at the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific (SIAP) occasionally visit the Bureau to observe various statistical activities.
(3) Technical cooperation
The Bureau sends statistical experts to other countries for extended periods on a request basis for technical cooperation, for example, for a country’s Population Census. In most cases, the experts are dispatched as part of international cooperation programs of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Experts have been sent to Mexico, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Argentina, Myanmar, and Cambodia, in approximate chronological order. The Bureau also accepts trainees from other countries participating in JICA programs.
In addition, the Bureau dispatches lecturers to the SIAP, and they give lectures on the methodologies of surveys and analyzing survey results and so on.
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| Lecturer at the Statistical Training of the SIAP | Statistical Experts to the National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia |
2. Activities related to international statistical conferences
(1) Participation in international statistical conferences
The Bureau dispatches experts to international conferences, seminars, etc. organized by the United Nations (UN), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and other groups on the Population Censuses, the CPI, the Labour Force Surveys, and the Business Registers, etc., thus contributing to the development of international statistics.
The Director-General of the Bureau is an Ex-officio Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), and a number of current and former staff members of the Bureau have been registered as selected individual members, acknowledging that the Bureau pays careful attention to ISI matters. The Bureau has participated in the assembly session of the ISI, which is held every two years.
(2) Hosting international statistical conferences
The Bureau occasionally hosts international statistical conferences. Since 1980, the Bureau has hosted the East Asian Statistical Conference, mostly in Japan, at intervals of two or three years. The conferences facilitate exchanges of information and views, and improving official statistics and statistical administration in the region. The member countries are Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. The latest conference (the 13th) was held in Tokyo in November 2012, and was attended by 31 statisticians from 18 countries and international organizations, etc.
Also the Bureau promotes exchanging of information and views from an international perspective by hosting international symposiums and expert meetings.
In November 2014, the Bureau hosted the 27th Population Census Conference in Tokyo, Japan, sponsored by the Association of National Census and Statistics Directors of America, Asia and the Pacific (ANCSDAAP), in collaboration with Statistics Korea (KOSTAT). The theme of the conference was “Evaluation on 2010 Round Census and Planning for Next Round Census”, and around 60 participants from 22 countries and international organizations, etc. attended the conference.
3. Provision and exchange of statistical information
The Bureau issues the “News Bulletin” in text-format e-mails to communicate news on the statistical activities of the Bureau such as summaries of statistics lately released, conferences, and technical cooperation projects. The Bureau also publishes various census and survey reports, and distributes these to other countries and international organizations.
Moreover, the Bureau has set up and is making improvements to its English Internet website (http://www.stat.go.jp/english/index.htm) to provide statistical data and information retrieval services. Users can access statistical organizations within and outside Japan through the link.
The Bureau also responds actively to requests for statistical information submitted by the governments of other countries and users. It received about 120 requests, mainly by e-mail, in 2014.
