Data Processing in the Japanese Government
| DOI | 10.1177/002085238204800218 |
| Author | The Administrative Management Agency |
| Published date | 01 June 1982 |
| Date | 01 June 1982 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Data Processing in the Japanese
Government
UDC : 681.177.8 : 35.06 (52)
by
THE ADMINISTRATIVE
MANAGEMENT AGENCY
I. THE CURRENT STATE OF GOVERN-
2. The Utilization of Computers in Govern-
MENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN
ment Information Systems
JAPAN
(1) The Central Government
1. Introduction
The utilization of computers within the
The utilization of
central
computers in Japan started
government began in 1958 when the
in the 1950s, and it has been exhibiting trends
Meteorological Agency installed a computer
for
of
weather
rapid expansion since the 1960s. In these
forecasting operations.
Since
circumstances, the present situation of society
then, computer utilization has been expanding
is commonly defined as an &dquo;Information-
year by year. As of March 1982, 331 com-
Oriented Society&dquo;.
puter units will be in use.
And when the
indirect use of computers such as the utilization
Along with society’s orientation towards a
of external computer centers is included, then
greater dependence on computerized informa-
every ministry and agency is currently utilizing
tion, or rather taking the lead in such a
computers.
However, the number of com-
trend, the utilization of computers both at
puters newly installed each year is not as large
central and local government level has been
as it used to be.
undergoing a process of constant expansion.
The application of computers includes a
When the utilization of computers began in
variety of purposes such as statistical pro-
the public sector in the late 1950s, the
cessing, payroll calculations, mutual aid sys-
purposes
tem registration and analyses for forecasting.
were mainly simple technical calculations and
statistical
And in accordance with
processing. The
recent
purposes of utiliza-
progress in
tion have subsequently been upgraded and
utilizing such technology as the Data-Base
diversified,
Management System (DBMS),
as
computer
may be noticed from the fact
pro-
that information retrieval
cessing is entering the
or
information
stage of information
retrieval and data
analyses for forecasting have become
analysis for planning and
a com-
decision-making.
mon feature.
The number of personnel engaged in auto-
Computers in government are playing an
matic data processing within central govern-
important role as indispensable means for
ment is 5,485 distributed amongst 223
achieving
organ-
more efficient and effective public
izational units since April 1 1981. Thus, the
services.
average number of such personnel per unit
On the other hand, because of the
amounts to 26.
The annual rate of staff
govern-
increase is
ment’s financial deficit of
not
recent years, it has
very high and there has been
also become important
a
to secure the efficient
tendency to reduce the number of keyboard
punchers, in
use of ADP resources such as hardware, soft-
particular, in recent years, as a
result of the introduction of such input
ware, data on magnetic tape and
equip-
manpower.
In addition, in accordance with the
ment
expansion
as OCR and OMR
and also as a result
of
of
personal data processing by computer and
entrusting private firms with the punching
on-line
work.
systems closely related to the daily
lives of the citizens, new problems such as
(2) Local Government
the protection of privacy, data security, and
the safety of systems have emerged, demanding
The installation of computers in local gov-
an...
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