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Chapter VII Statistical Research and Training Institute
1. Organization and Functions of the Statistical Research and Training Institute
The Statistical Research and Training Institute aims to promote the development and dissemination of statistical knowledge, and to contribute to the development of statistical systems in Japan and globally. The Institute has two main functions: statistical research and statistical training.
2. Brief history
The Institute was founded in 1921 as the Statistics Staff Training Institute within the Census Office (Kokusei-in). After being suspended from 1943 to 1946, in 1948 it became a permanent body attached to the successor agency to the Kokusei-in, the Statistics Bureau of the Prime Minister's Agency. In 1971, the Institute opened its courses to all personnel of national and local governments and public corporations, and was renamed the Statistical Training Institute of the Statistics Bureau. In the 1984 administrative reforms, the Institute became a subsidiary body of the Statistics Center of the Management and Coordination Agency. During the 2001 administrative reforms when the MIC was established, the Institute was transformed into the Statistical Research and Training Institute (by integrating the research and publishing functions as well as the library). This was done in order to establish a more systematic connection between research and training. In April 2003, the Statistical Research and Training Institute was designated an independent educational institution of the MIC. In April 2013, the functions of compiling statistical compendia, Statistics Library and Statistics Museum were transferred to the Statistics Bureau due to the revision of the Order for the Organization of the MIC.
In March 2014, the Institute moved to Kokubunji City located in the west part of Tokyo (in the facility of the Institute for Information and Communications Policy).
3. Statistical training
The Institute fulfills the roles of a central statistical training institute as well as a training institute specializing in statistics in Japan. It provides various statistical training courses for the personnel of national and local governments and government-affiliated organizations with the aim of imparting statistical knowledge and skills in duties such as the compilation of statistics, statistical analysis, and the use of statistical data.
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Course Name |
Contents and Major Subjects |
Term |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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Comprehensive Course |
Comprehensive Course |
A comprehensive training course to acquire statistical knowledge and theory, and the analytical skills required for policy planning and evaluation in various administrative fields, as well as building up extensive applied skills |
3 months |
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Introduction to Statistics Courses |
Statistical Training Course for Staff engaged in Statistical works |
A course to gain the basic statistical knowledge and the practical knowledge in statistical surveys such as the planning and design of statistical surveys |
4 days |
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Statistical Training Course for Users |
A course to learn the basic statistical knowledge, the method of reading principal economic indicators and the fundamental knowledge for using statistical data |
4 days |
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Online Learning |
Online Learning 1 |
A course designed for personnel newly engaged in statistical work, to gain the most fundamental statistical knowledge and theory through Online Learning by using PCs at their offices as well as "Schooling (group training)" |
15 days |
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Schooling |
2 days |
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Online Learning 2 |
A course designed for personnel with fundamental knowledge and theory, to gain analytical knowledge and theory, through Online Learning alone |
15 days |
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Schooling |
1 day |
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Basic Statistical Survey Courses |
Basic Statistical Survey Course 1 |
A course designed for mid-level staff to gain the statistical knowledge required for their work, and study the application of statistics to solve problems using case studies |
4 days |
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Basic Statistical Survey Course 2 |
A course for personnel with skills in EXCEL worksheet functions for statistical calculations to study analytical methods and basic knowledge on geographical information systems (GIS) |
5 days |
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Basic Statistical Survey Course 3 Economic Projections |
A course to gain practical knowledge and skills in economic projections using various economic data |
3 days |
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Thematic Courses |
Designing Statistical Surveys |
A course to gain practical knowledge in the planning and design of statistical surveys and opinion polls, and sample design |
1 week |
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National and Prefectural Accounts |
A course to gain knowledge theory and estimation and analytical methods for national and prefectural accounts |
1 week |
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Structure of I-O Tables and Analysis of Economic Impacts Using I-O Tables |
A course to gain knowledge of national and prefectural accounts as well as I-O tables, and learn the structure of I-O tables and analytical methods for estimating economic impacts using I-O tables |
1 week |
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Population Estimation |
A course to gain practical knowledge and skills in population estimation using various basic data |
1 week |
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Economic Projections |
A course to gain practical knowledge and skills in economic projections using various economic data |
1 week |
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Regional Analysis and Introduction to GIS |
A course designed for personnel engaged in GIS-related work, to gain basic knowledge of statistical GIS and data analytical methods using GIS basic software |
3 days |
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Statistical Methods for Administrative Evaluation |
A course to learn basic statistical knowledge, theory and data analysis methods required for administrative evaluation in national and local governments |
4 days |
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Introduction to use microdata with statistical analysis software 'R' |
A course to gain basic knowledge and skills for utilizing microdata, and to help personnel engaged in survey-conducts learn items to be taken into account in providing microdata |
4 days |
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Specialized Courses |
Statistical Training Course for educators |
A course designed for introducing to educators the methods for making materials for statistical classes such as the method for reading statistical tables and Consideration in using statistical tables |
1 day |
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Statistical Training Course for newly appointed municipal directors of statistical divisions |
A course about the statistical role and the basic knowledge of official statistics |
1 day |
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Statistical Training Course for using statistical Open data |
A course about statistical data such as API (Application Programming Interface) and GIS@(Geographic Information System) |
1 day |
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Local Training |
Regional Statistical Seminar |
A course designed for local personnel (targeting the Tokai and Hokuriku District for FY2014), to gain the most basic statistical knowledge and promote the dissemination of statistical knowledge |
1 day |
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4. Statistical research activities
Responding to the various needs of statistics required from the social and economic changes, the following researches are carried out in collaboration with external experts and guest researchers:
(a) Research on the advanced usage of statistics
(b) Research on the recent trends of the statistical technology
(c) Research and investigation for planning of new statistical training courses
Joint Research
Regarding the research on the advanced usage of statistics, various joint-research projects are carried out in collaboration with the guest researchers. The results of the joint-research are published in the "Research Paper" released also on the internet website.
Recent themes of the joint-research are as follows:
(a) A study on an efficient method to process and tabulate census data
(b) Analysis for the methodology of business register frame and statistics based on the Establishment Frame Database
(c) Research on pseudo micro data for statistical training
(d) Analyses of price dispersion using the Japanese National Survey of Prices
(e) A study of population and households statistics for the fundamentals in disaster preparedness
(f) Analysis of trends in population movement using microdata from the Japanese population census
(g) Analysis of trends in the movement of the non-Japanese labor force using microdata from the Japanese population census
Publication of Research Memoir of Official Statistics
The issue of "Research Memoir of Official Statistics" is published annually which aims to publicize and introduce the results of statistical research carried out by the Institute, together with the Statistics Bureau and other statistical organizations.
Participation in the Statistical Societies
The Institute is a participant member of some statistical societies, together with the Statistics Bureau and other statistical organizations, such as Japan Statistical Society, Population Association of Japan, GISA (Geographic Information Systems Association), Japan Economic Association, and JSQC (Japanese Society for Quality Control). The main activities in these statistical societies are releasing the achievements of statistical researches, and also collecting the latest information of the statistical research trends.
