New document management rules to go into effect

April 2, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese government agencies and ministries are set to start implementing their new rules on the management of public documents on Sunday, the first day of fiscal 2018.

The new rules, among other things, call for administrative documents needed for examining decision-making processes in the future to be kept for at least one year in principle.

But as the Ministry of Finance's tampering of documents related to the controversial huge discount sale of a state land lot to school operator Moritomo Gakuen came to light in early March, the government has been urged to take additional measures.

The management of public documents was called into question partly because the MOF had classified records on negotiations on the land sale to Moritomo Gakuen as those that would be kept for less than a year.

In December last year, the government compiled new guidelines as the basis for ministries and agencies to make their own rules.

The guidelines stipulate that administrative documents necessary for examining decision-making processes should be stored for one year or longer in principle. The range of documents that can be discarded in less than one year was narrowed down as a result.

Based on the guidelines, the Defense Ministry, which was criticized for covering up daily reports from Self-Defense Forces troops dispatched to South Sudan to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations there, came up with its new rules, including the storage of daily reports on peacekeeping operations for 10 years.

Following the revelation of the MOF's document tampering, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a ministerial meeting on March 23 said, "The government will make all-out efforts to review the way of managing public documents by finding more problems."

Document tampering was also found at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Tokyo University Prof. Kazuhiro Hayakawa called for the introduction of penalties by revising the law on the management of public documents. Jiji Press