The seventh meeting of the Liaison Conference of Ministries and Agencies Concerned with Business digitalisation

Last Updated:: Apr 15, 2025

Overview

Date and time: Friday, February 14, 2025, from 13:00 to 14:00
Location: Online
Agenda:
1. Opening
2. Business
  1. Current Status of Comprehensive Investigation of Administrative Procedures
  2. Final Income Tax Return for 2024 and Results of Request for Cooperation in Raising Awareness of digitalisation Promotion by Businesses
  3. Review of the Electronic Transaction Data Storage System to Facilitate Seamless Processing of Digital Data
  4. Elimination of storage of paper copies at convenience stores, etc. that store local and national taxes
  5. Expansion of Online Deposit / Savings Inquiries
  6. Overview of Portal for Businesses
  7. Examples of Promoting Conversion of Subsidies to online application Utilizing jGrants
  8. About Digital Marketplaces (DMPs)
3. Closing

Material

Minutes, etc.

Members present

Chairman

HASUI Tomoya (Deputy Director-General, Group of Strategy and Organization, Digital Agency)

Member

Kojiro YOSHIZAWA (Deputy Director-General of the Cabinet Secretariat Cabinet (assistant to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretariat))
*Attendance by proxy: Taku Ito (Director, Cabinet Secretariat Cabinet (Assistant to Deputy Chief of Cabinet Secretariat Prefecture))
Rika Kishida Ko (Cabinet Secretariat New Regional Economy and Living Environment Creation Office, Deputy Director-General)
Hiroshi Yoshida Taira (Cabinet Secretariat Digital Administrative and Financial Reform Council Secretariat Deputy Director-General)
Seiichi Ito (cybersecurity, Cabinet Office, Informatization Deputy Director-General)
Hironori Shigematsu (Deputy Director-General, Head of National Police Agency)
*Attendance by proxy: Akihiro Nakamura (Director of Planning Division, National Police Agency Director-General's Secretariat)
Yu Ozaki (Deputy Director-General, Financial Services Agency Office of Directors)
Naoki Kanazawa (Director-General, Planning Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Minister's Secretariat)
Koichi Nakamura (cybersecurity, Informatization Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Justice Minister's Secretariat)
Yukio Saida (cybersecurity, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Informatization Director)
*Representative: Mitsue Morita (Director, Information and Communications Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Minister's Secretariat)
Tomoyuki SAISU (Deputy Director-General, National Tax Agency Director-General's Secretariat, Ministry of Finance)
Takashi Fuchigami (General Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister's Secretariat)
*Attendance by proxy: Taro Shin Nakamura (Director, Administrative Reform Promotion Office, General Affairs Division, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
Lin Hongxiang (cybersecurity and Jinhua Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare)
Yuji Itoh (cybersecurity, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Informatization Deputy Director-General)
Hidetaka NISHIMURA (cybersecurity, Informatization Deputy Director-General, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Minister's Secretariat)
Tomohiro Okada (Manager, Business Support Division, SME Agency)
*Representative: Kakuhei Yoshida (Section Chief, General Affairs Division, SME Agency)
Takeshi Yamashita (cybersecurity and Informatization Deputy Director-General, Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure
Kazuya KUMAGAI (cybersecurity, Informatization Deputy Director-General, Ministry of the Environment Minister's Secretariat)
Masanori IEGOYA (cybersecurity, Ministry of Defense, Informatization Deputy Director-General)
*Attendance by proxy: Yuki Onishi (digitalisation Promotion Coordinator, Cyber Development Division, Ministry of Defense Development Planning Bureau)
Yoji Kamiguchi

Minutes

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for Now that the scheduled time has come, we will hold the 7th Inter-Ministerial Liaison Meeting on Business digitalisation, etc.

I am Hasui from Digital Agency, and I will be leading the meeting. Nice to meet you.

As for today's meeting, all members are attending online. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend.

The materials are as I have sent you in advance.

Well, I'd like to get down to business. We have a lot of business today.

On the current status of the Omnibus Survey of Administrative Procedures.
On the final income tax return for 2024 and the results of the request for cooperation in publicizing the digitalisation promotion of business operators.
Regarding the review of the system for storing electronic transaction data to contribute to seamless processing with digital data.
Elimination of storage of paper copies at convenience stores, etc. that store local and national taxes, etc.
Expansion of On-line Inquiry of Deposits and Savings
An overview of the portal for businesses.
Examples of promotion of online application application for subsidies utilizing jGrants.
About Digital Marketplaces (DMPs).

They are these 8.

First of all, I would like to talk about the current status of the Phase 2 Investigation of the Administrative Procedures, which is Agenda 1.

Digital Agency, Yoshida Director for Policy Planning, nice to meet you.

Director for Policy Planning Yoshida: Today, I would like to talk about the status of the comprehensive investigation of administrative procedures. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

As a Phase 1 investigation, we have been investigating what kind of administrative procedures there are, and as a Phase 2 investigation, we are currently investigating the online status of those procedures.

First, in Phase 1, nearly 97% of the information has already been entered, but additional procedures, including those common to the Cabinet Office and each Ministry, have been registered, and confirmation and input are currently underway.

In any case, thank you very much for your cooperation.

Next, regarding the status of input in Phase 2, currently about 20% of the procedures have already been input online. I believe that there will be some discussion on how to input the procedures common to the Cabinet Office and each Ministry, but I would like to proceed while coordinating. We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.

During the actual survey, we have been able to see the situation as data. For example, in the figure above, what kind of attached documents are required for each procedure is shown by a bar graph, and each color shows what kind of attached documents are required by each ministry and agency.

In particular, for those who require a certificate of registered matters or residence certificate, I believe it can be used to sort out ideas for future computerization, such as whether it will be replaced by certification like gBizID or My Number Card.

In addition, in the lower part, you can see what kind of event the procedure is taking place, so I think it can be used in the future to analyze where the time required for the procedure is increasing.

As for the Phase 2 survey, we would like to extend the deadline by two weeks to March 14, although it is inconvenient to check the online status of so many procedures. We would like to organize this and consider how to disclose it and how to use actual data.

That's all from my side.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions about this explanation.

As you just explained, the number of procedures is written in one laws and ordinances, but there are actually procedures that each ministry and agency is in charge of, and these have increased considerably. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, who are very busy, but I would appreciate your cooperation.

As I explained earlier, this is from the perspective of where administrative procedures are carried out, what documents are attached, and whether we can identify the panes and improve them. I am very sorry, but I would like to ask for your continued cooperation. Thank you very much.

In addition, as for the follow-up of the Digital Society Formation Priority Plan and other surveys conducted by Digital Agency at the procedural level, as much as possible, this survey service, which is called DXS, will be used, so please be aware of this point as well.

Well, if you have any questions about this later, please let me know.

Next, we will move on to Agenda 2, "Results of the Request for Cooperation in Publicizing Income Tax Returns for 2024 and digitalisation Promotion by Business Operators," and Agenda 3, "Review of the System for Storing Electronic Transaction Data to Facilitate Seamless Processing by Digital Data."

At the fifth meeting of the Liaison Conference, National Tax Agency will explain the results of the request for your cooperation. Agenda items 2 and 3 will be explained by National Tax Agency.

Thank you very much for your continued explanation, Ms. Deputy Director-General Saisu National Tax Agency.

National Tax Agency (Saisu Deputy Director-General): This is Saisu from National Tax Agency, . Nice to meet you.

I will explain based on the materials.

On page 2, I would like to thank the Cabinet Office and each Ministry and Agency for their cooperation in publicizing the Final Income Tax Return for 2024 that I requested and the promotion of digitalisation by business operators.

As shown in table ② on the right, we have notified more than 2,900 organizations, and tax returns will start from next week, and I hope that digitalisation will make further progress. I also hope that business operators will make further progress so that digitalisation will make progress starting from taxes. I would like to thank you again for your great cooperation.

On page 3, I would like to report that we were able to include several relevant items in the 2025 tax system Amendment Bill compiled at the end of the year to enable seamless processing using digital data.

One is a revision that excludes from the application of the 10% weighting of the heavy additional tax when sending, receiving, and storing electronic data, which can prevent falsification of electronic transaction data and enable proper bookkeeping.

Another thing is that the blue return special deduction is a requirement for addition, which is the preservation of high-quality electronic books. We would like to give an incentive to people who use a system that prevents falsification of electronic transaction data as I have just mentioned and that incorporates a mechanism for proper bookkeeping, to use a system that properly preserves and processes such books in such a way that the addition of the blue return special deduction is applied.

The remaining two pages are excerpts of the relevant parts of the Outline decided by the Cabinet at the end of the year.

That's all from National Tax Agency.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about the current explanation.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thanks to the great cooperation of all of you, including those from Saisu Deputy Director-General, this year we exceeded the previous year's results and were able to reach more than 2,900 organizations. I would like to express my gratitude once again. I would like to continue to work closely with you, and thank you very much.

Now, I would like to move on to Agenda 4, "Abolition of the storage of paper receipts at convenience stores, etc. that store local and national taxes, etc." I would like to explain about the efforts related to paper receipt receipts, which had incurred significant costs at convenience stores, etc. Cabinet Office regulatory reform Promotion Office, Deputy Director-General Inokuma, thank you.

Cabinet Office regulatory reform Promotion Office (Inokuma Deputy Director-General): This is regulatory reform Promotion Office. Then, I will explain based on Handout 3.

The regulatory reform Promotion Council, for which the regulatory reform Promotion Office serves as the secretariat, is working on regulatory reform to promote digitalisation by business operators.

Today, I would like to introduce the abolition of the storage of paper copies at convenience stores, etc. that store local and national taxes, which was included in the interim report on the promotion of regulatory reform decided on December 25 last year.

First of all, I would like to ask you to look at the square above. Convenience stores, etc. are currently providing agency services for the receipt of public funds such as national and local taxes, and it is necessary to store paper receipts for inspections related to the receipt of payments at local governments, etc.

I would like you to look at the issues under the current system. The cost of transporting and storing these paper copies at convenience stores, including labor costs, is approximately 2.4 billion yen or more per year for the entire industry, and it is a heavy burden for business operators.

In addition, on the lower part of the two points below that, there is an opinion that local governments and those who conduct inspections have a heavy workload as a whole in terms of inspection affairs.

In terms of specific contracts, since local governments and convenience store operators are supposed to conclude contracts, there is a problem that unique rules, so-called local rules, have arisen.

In addition, although the regulations allow the use of some electronic information in the national tax collection agency service, in reality, it was recognized that the same operation as the public money collection agency service of local governments and the storage of paper copies are being carried out.

In relation to this issue, we are calling for two regulatory reform to reduce the burden on businesses such as convenience stores, improve operational efficiency, and reduce the burden on local governments. This is the direction of regulatory reform below.

First, I have asked Mr. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to ensure the appropriateness of the agency handling of public fund receipts based on the Local Autonomy Act, while considering the electromagnetic storage of receipts and inspection methods using digital technology and including them in standard contracts to be used by local governments. I have asked him to support the revision of notifications and the introduction of standard contracts.

Second, I am also asking Mr. National Tax Agency to review the content of the consignment agreement so that the consignment of national tax payment will be similar to the administrative work of local governments that I mentioned earlier.

The regulatory reform Promotion Council has established five working groups under the plenary session, and in January, we newly established a working group on digital AI. We will continue to advance regulatory reform initiatives that contribute to the promotion of digitalisation by business operators.

That's all for my explanation.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions about the current explanation.

This initiative is a very important initiative that was taken up by the Digital Administrative and Fiscal Reform Council, and I would like to once again express my gratitude to everyone from the regulatory reform Promotion Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, National Tax Agency, and the relevant ministries and agencies for their efforts.

Furthermore, this case is not limited to local and national taxes. For example, I believe that there are other collection agency services that are treated equally, such as the payment of utility charges such as electricity, gas, and telephone charges. As for the ministries and agencies that are in charge of these public utilities, if necessary, please let those in charge within the ministries and agencies know about this initiative, and we hope that they will consider abolishing the storage of paper copies in the charge collection service of other public utilities as well. I hope that we will cooperate with the relevant ministries and agencies in the future, and thank you very much.

Next, I would like to move on to Agenda 5, "Expansion of On-line Deposit and Savings Inquiries." This initiative was explained by Mr. National Tax Agency at last year's Liaison Meeting. Later, it was decided by the Liaison Council for the Promotion of National and Local Digital Common Infrastructure, which was established under the Digital Administrative and Fiscal Reform Council, and it is one of the candidates for standardization in fiscal 2024. Please explain the status of subsequent consideration.

Mr. Digital Agency, Mr. Hozaki, please.

Assistant Takarazaki: My name is Takarazaki, and I'm a Deputy Director from Digital Agency, . Nice to meet you.

Regarding the content of the materials, as Deputy Director-General Hasui explained earlier, at the last Liaison Meeting of Relevant Ministries and Agencies for digitalisation and Other Areas of Business Operators, we asked for the cooperation of the ministries and agencies in charge of the systems in formulating the draft promotion policies that were requested to be prepared by the Liaison Council for Promotion of National and Local Digital Common Infrastructure.

Our efforts so far are summarized on the page shown on this screen and the next page. Let me briefly explain.

According to a survey conducted by the former IT Office in 2018, the number of inquiries and responses to deposits and savings inquiries is 60 million per year. The overall volume is 10% for national taxes, 60% for local taxes, about 20% for public assistance, national health insurance, and nursing care, and 10% for pensions, police, and others. Many inquiries and responses are still made in writing, which is a burden on both financial institutions and administrative agencies.

In light of the current situation, in 2019, at a review meeting held by the former IT Office and Financial Services Agency as the secretariat, a plan to promote digitalisation by utilizing online services by private sector was indicated. In response to this, in Priority Plan, which is summarized by Digital Agency, since 2021, administrative agencies have been actively leading digitalisation, and financial institutions have been promoting digitalisation step by step based on system development plans, etc. It is necessary to promote digitalisation by both administrative agencies and financial institutions, and in Priority Plan, it is stated that administrative agencies are actively leading digitalisation, especially since they are in the upstream of deposit and savings inquiry and response operations.
The next page, this is the most recent, but since 2023, based on the proposal from National Tax Agency, in order to reduce the administrative burden on both administrative agencies and financial institutions, we have been calling on financial institutions to respond to online inquiry services and local governments to respond to online inquiry services.

Among them, in October 2024, the National and Local Digital Common Promotion Liaison Council, for which the Digital Administrative and Fiscal Reform Secretariat serves as the secretariat, selected the online inquiry of deposits and savings as one of the items to be standardized. Digital Agency is mainly in charge of this matter, but of course, for each initiative, with the cooperation of National Police Agency, Financial Services Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, a draft promotion policy with a future schedule will be formulated by the end of March this year.

The following is a slide that summarizes the current status of online inquiries. At the first meeting of the Liaison Conference of Relevant Ministries and Agencies on digitalisation, National Tax Agency was the first national government administrative agency to introduce an online inquiry service. According to the content of National Tax Agency's presentation, we are aware that he explained that the online inquiry service shortened the time from the inquiry to the completion of the response, that it had been shortened from several weeks to a mean of 2.3 days, and that it achieved administrative efficiency through data processing.

With regard to the current situation of local governments and financial institutions, I am aware that more than 80% of local governments with a population of 10,000 or more use the services, while only about 40% of local governments with a population of less than 10,000 use the services, and that there are challenges for their introduction and dissemination.

On the other hand, in terms of financial institutions, banks, shinkin banks, and credit cooperatives, more than 80% of financial institutions plan to provide inquiry services, including those that plan to do so. However, less than 50% of banks, etc., that provide services only on the Internet, more than 20% of life insurance companies, and no non-life insurance companies provide inquiry services.

In the process of selecting common digital administrative and fiscal reforms, we asked local governments across the country for their opinions on deposit and savings inquiries. They asked us to expand the number of financial institutions that respond to deposits and savings inquiries, and we received various opinions such as unification of inquiry formats and items, improvement of the accuracy of identity identification in online inquiries, and lowering of usage fees.

Lastly, in compiling the promotion policy by March, I would like to ask for the cooperation of all Ministries and Agencies. I would like to thoroughly explain and consult with you about the detailed contents in a businesslike manner, so I will start today.

First, regarding (1), we would like to conduct a survey to understand the actual situation of inquiries and responses in local governments in the future, so we would like to ask for your cooperation in the survey. As for the content we are assuming, we would like to ask about the challenges faced by organizations that do not use online inquiry services, and the second question is about the efficiency improvement effects of organizations that already use online inquiry services.

Regarding (2), regarding financial institutions that do not support online inquiry services, we would like to implement more effective appeals while referring to the efforts made in Financial Services Agency, National Tax Agency, and Digital Agency last fiscal year. Therefore, we would like to ask for the cooperation of all relevant ministries and agencies, including Financial Services Agency. As for the details, we would like to explain and consult in detail at the level in charge, so we would appreciate it if the members of the meeting could also take a look at these efforts.

That's all for the explanation of the materials. Thank you very much.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions about the explanation I just gave you.

As for this matter, as Mr. Hosaki explained earlier, I believe that the relevant ministries and agencies that are in charge of the targeted operations, such as making inquiries about deposits and savings, will be the main sources of advice. As for this matter, as I explained earlier, a draft policy for promoting standardization will be compiled by the end of this fiscal year, and in preparation for this compilation, as I explained earlier, a survey will be conducted on the introduction of online inquiry services, etc.

I would like to ask the relevant ministries and agencies for their cooperation in this coordination, and as Assistant Deputy Minister Takarazaki mentioned earlier, I would like to have separate consultations conducted in a business-like manner, so I would appreciate your cooperation.

If you have any questions so far, or if you have any questions via chat, as I believe you did last time, please enter them in the chat as well.

Next, I would like to move on to agenda item 6, "Overview of the portal for business operators." I would like to give an overview of the portal for business operators that we are currently developing.

Digital Agency, Director Ohtsuka, nice to meet you.

Director Ohtsuka: My name is Ohtsuka, and I am Director in charge of the portal site for business operators in . Nice to meet you. I would like to explain the outline of the portal site for business operators.

There is a service for individuals called Mynaportal, which started in 2017. As a version for business operators, we would like to build an alpha version of the portal for business operators as a project of Digital Agency in fiscal 2025, and I would like to explain the outline of it.

With the aim of achieving both convenience and efficient system development for both business operators and clerical staff of government ministries and agencies, we will establish a portal for business operators at the front desk of business operators, and organize the functions commonly used in (iii) procedure processing systems such as gBizID and commercial registration electronic certification as (ii) common functions as a whole.

For example, by connecting the Corporation Base Registry and the Common Functions, there are various input items for business operators when they apply. If the information pulled from the Corporation Base Registry is used for the input content, I believe that the secretariats of the ministries and agencies are still checking all the items that the business operators have input so far, but if the information is pulled from the Corporation Base Registry, it is the correct information that the ministries and agencies originally have, so there is no need to check that part. This business operator portal cannot be made as a function immediately, but as we develop it from the α version to the β version in the future, I believe that it will be possible to reduce the administrative burden on the ministries and agencies by adding such functions in the future.

In addition, this common function will be able to aggregate various information. For example, I think it is possible to aggregate statistical data, dashboards, etc. that can be used in the EBPM, and I hope to build an environment that can be easily used by all the ministries and agencies.

On the next page, regarding the experience of applying for procedures for business operators, currently, as written in ASIS at the top, business operators find the necessary procedures for themselves by searching the web and apply using different forms for each procedure, and the attached documents at the time of application are difficult to use and reuse.

With regard to these issues, TOBE, a future vision using a business operator portal, will teach you the procedures that suit you, and you can apply by yourself or by proxy while working together with a business operator online. We also want to provide you with an experience where you can store information on various attached documents online and retrieve it at any time.

As for the method of providing administrative procedure information from the administrative side to business operators, as currently described in ASIS, information is provided for each system, and each corporation, business operator, etc. accesses each system to obtain necessary information or inputs information at the time of application. As for the future vision of the business operator portal, as was mentioned a little earlier on the agenda, we would like to provide such an experience that data such as the complete survey of administrative procedures can be utilized and searched through the business operator portal.

As common functions of the portal for business operators, we would like to provide a procedural information search function that can utilize the DXS information I just mentioned, a function to store basic information such as industry and office, a function to make recommendations to business operators, a function to notify business operators of status information on application procedures, and an electronic locker function that can store documents such as articles of incorporation and financial statements to be attached to applications.

To explain the electronic locker function in detail, in the past, business operators prepared documents for each procedure and sent the documents to each secretariat for each procedure, but by storing them in electronic lockers on the cloud, reuse and efficient procedures are possible, and we believe that the burden on business operators will be reduced.

In the α version in fiscal 2025, the subsidy application system jGrants, which is operated by Digital Agency, will be linked with this system to enable single sign-on and status information linkage, and from fiscal 2026 onward, we will gradually expand the linkage with other systems.

As for the future schedule, specifically, we will release the alpha version in February next year, and after that, we will use it by various business operators, demonstrate it, improve the functions required in fiscal 2026 and beyond, and further expand cooperation to other systems.

That's all.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about this.

As for this initiative, we are currently cooperating with various ministries and agencies to conduct a comprehensive survey on administrative procedures, which I explained at the beginning, and a comprehensive survey on subsidies, which we also discussed. By utilizing the results of these surveys, we aim to make the procedures more user-friendly for business operators and subsidies.

We would like to use the electronic locker function to efficiently apply for documents that span multiple procedures. We will continue to share information so that it can be used for as wide a range of procedures as possible.

If there are any points that you are aware of at this point, I think that we will make use of them in the development of specific systems in the future, so please contact us individually. Please do not hesitate to give us your opinions. Thank you.

Next, I would like to move on to Agenda 7, "Examples of Promoting the Utilization of jGrants as a online application for Subsidy Applications." This is an introduction to the efforts of each ministry and agency to improve the online application ratio of subsidies by implementing it in conjunction with the online application response, which has been introduced in previous plenary sessions.

Then, Mr. Digital Agency and Mr. Director for Policy Planning Yoshida, thank you very much.

Director for Policy Planning Yoshida: . Here, I would like to explain the status of jGrants's promotion.

First of all, in Digital Agency and Priority Plan, since fiscal 2025, we have been requesting that each ministry and agency advance the computerization of subsidies for business operators as a general rule.

Under such circumstances, when making a online application, there are needs on the side of business operators, such as whether or not it is possible to have administrative scriveners or professionals apply on behalf of others online. Regarding these functions, we have recently released a new function that enables proxy applications.

In terms of how to set up the system, in jGrants, when we provide a proxy application function, if you select an item that enables this function when you set up a subsidy, that proxy application function will be implemented by itself.

When business operators actually search for subsidies, they will be able to search whether or not it is possible to apply on behalf of others, and when they actually apply on behalf of others, they will be able to search whether or not it is possible to apply on behalf of others. For this purpose, dummy subsidies will be provided and a trial environment will be set up on the website so that people can actually experience it.

Depending on the subsidy, I think there are probably quite a lot of shigyo applying, so I hope that this kind of place will help deepen awareness and recognition.

JGrants is used by various ministries and agencies. In this context, I would like to introduce the first three examples of how online application should be expanded, which I explained several points in the previous meeting.

First, we interviewed the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency (SME Agency) and asked them what kind of measures they can take to promote online application. One of them is the introduction of an incentive. Specifically, if you apply online at the time of screening, you will receive additional points, or if you apply by paper, you will receive a deduction. It is written at the bottom, and I think there is a way to add an incentive in the form of a blue frame, in which points are deducted if you do not apply online.

In fact, by establishing such an incentive, in some cases, 80 to 90% of the subsidies from the SME Agency came from online application. In fact, when the percentage of online application exceeds 30%, the administrative burden will be much less than the burden of having to process paper applications when they are received. Therefore, I think it will be important for us, the administrative side, to move to online application as much as possible in order to improve the efficiency of operations. In addition, when thinking about connecting to issue and other areas as soon as possible, from the viewpoint of user convenience, moving to online application is a meaningful initiative, so I would like you to refer to this one.

In addition, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government uses jGrants quite often, and we have received suggestions on how to set up a subsidy application that is easy to use. It has become very important to look at the application flow from the applicant's point of view. We will try to operate all the subsidies we set up by ourselves once. If we can understand the flow, we will have an image of how business operators actually apply. For example, when we receive inquiries, it will be easier to respond, and it will lead to a reduction in the administrative burden itself, so I hope you will also refer to these.

I believe that there are some business operators who do not know how to apply, so if such a proxy application is set up, please make them aware of the sites I mentioned earlier.

In addition, with regard to the dissemination of online application, I hope that you will refer to the examples of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government mentioned earlier.

In addition, Digital Transformation Co-Creation Platform, a Slack channel established by Digital Agency, also has a channel for inquiries about jGrants. jGrants will continue to release new functions in the future, and I believe that there will be regular distribution of such functions, support for introduction, and learning how users use each other, so I would like to set up such a place. I would be grateful if you could introduce the registration of Digital Transformation Co-Creation Platform to the people in the department that serves as the secretariat for such subsidies.

That's all from my side.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments on this explanation. What do you think?

In addition, as I mentioned earlier, I would appreciate it if you could chat with me at the end or at other places. This time, I introduced the release of the proxy application function in jGrants and examples of improving online application rates using jGrants.

In particular, efforts to adjust the points at the time of examination in cases other than online application and efforts by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency will greatly contribute to improving the online application ratio and reducing the administrative burden associated with it, as described in the materials. In addition, as you are aware, as a general rule, applications for subsidies will be made electronically from fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2025, so I would like to ask you to consider utilizing jGrants, including such aspects. Thank you.

Now, let's move on to agenda item 8, "About the Digital Marketplace (DMP)." As I explained here on January 30, the Digital Marketplace has released a search function for software services. Including that, I would like to introduce the current situation and future initiatives of the Digital Marketplace.

Thank you again, Director for Policy Planning Yoshida from Digital Agency.

Director for Policy Planning Yoshida: Nice to meet you. I would like to introduce a new software procurement system called Digital Marketplace.

We have already held a briefing session for each ministry and agency in November last year, and I would like to explain again how this system works. In the past, we developed software from scratch, asked each vendor for a proposal and price, and comprehensively evaluated the proposal and won the bid, as shown on the left. However, in this procurement pattern, it took a long time to use the software, and the procedures themselves were complicated, so only major vendors were able to enter the market.

In response to this situation, in this digital market-based initiative, we would like each business operator to register SaaS, which is a package of software developed on a cloud base, as a solution on a catalog site first, and each government agency will search for it according to the specifications and narrow it down so that it can be procured. Through this, we can shorten the procurement period, and since we already have SaaS package software, we believe that it will be more convenient for you to use it immediately. In addition, for business operators, we believe that we can increase the number of new business operators, including small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.

Until now, by the end of October last year, we have released a function that allows business operators to register software and sales services, and from January 30 this year, we have released a function that allows them to search for software sales services that they have actually registered. By the end of the fiscal year, we will also release a function that will be used for actual procurement. This is the schedule.

Regarding the current status of software and business registrations, as of February 4, the number is increasing, but the number of businesses registered is about 170, and the number of software registrations is 132, which is more than 100. The current number of applications has almost doubled, so it is already expected that software with numbers such as 200 and 300 will be registered within this fiscal year.

In fact, this catalog site is not necessarily used only for procurement, but I believe it can also be used at the stage of policy planning, specification formulation, and budget request.

If there is a need to provide such a solution as a service, or to make it convenient as an internal office work, first of all, we would like you to explore what kind of SaaS is available in the market. At a certain stage of policy planning, how to organize the specifications, and how much the budget will be, we can actually inquire from business operators through this catalog site, order such things, or conduct a hearing, so I think there is a way to utilize it. So, when we think about making a wide range of new IT solutions, I hope it will be a place where you can start.

Regarding the actual procurement, you will be asked to create a check sheet called the Procurement Specifications Check Sheet to organize the procurement specifications. This check sheet is actually designed to correspond to the search items on the catalog site, so if you check what you have checked here as it is in the search, the software with the inspection results that match the procurement specifications will come out.

In addition, we have a search mode called procurement mode. If you search by so-called free word search, you can select software arbitrarily, so we exclude such things and narrow down only by specifications.

The actual search results will be able to be exported in PDF and other formats. Using this and the Procurement Specification Check Sheet as evidence, we will conduct a fair search according to these specifications. As a result, if these are selected, we will proceed to procurement.

In the case of only one company, it will be a discretionary contract, and in the case of multiple companies, it is assumed that procurement will be in the form of designated competitive bidding.

Lastly, regarding the request to each ministry and agency, if the ministries and agencies that are interested in this project do not register the SaaS, etc. that they are actually procuring on this catalog site, they will not be able to procure through the procurement process I mentioned earlier, so I would appreciate it very much if you could encourage SaaS business operators and sales business operators that you have relationships with to register.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, the general search function has already been released. If you search for this on the Digital Marketplace, you will probably find it, so please access that site to find out what software is listed and use it as a reference for procurement. There is also a guide on how to actually use it, so please refer to it as well.

That's all.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about the current explanation.

As you explained, I hope that ministries and agencies will actively use the search function for software services, which is already available, and use it as a reference for procurement. I believe that there is a need to get used to such things rather than learning them, and I think that if you look at it through search, you will have a better image.

In order to further increase the number of SaaS that can be used, we would like to encourage SaaS business operators and sales business operators to register with DMP. Therefore, if there are business operators with whom each ministry and agency has a relationship, I would appreciate it if you would actively ask them, as I explained earlier.

Well, that's all for today's planned theme, but including the whole proceedings so far, if you have any questions or opinions, I would like to ask them at the end. What do you think?

Nishimura Deputy Director-General, please come in.

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Nishimura Deputy Director-General): This is Nishimura in Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, . I would like to express my gratitude.

I listened to the presentation today, and I was impressed that digitalisation is being promoted with various systems.

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry believes that the digitalisation of business operators and the digitalisation of the administration are very important, so we would like to cooperate as much as possible.

As Deputy Director-General Hasui mentioned earlier, I would like to take the opportunity to inform the relevant internal bureaus, organizations, and businesses. Thank you very much.

In addition, with regard to Agenda 1, I believe that the Comprehensive Survey of Administrative Procedures that you are currently conducting is an important basic survey that will serve as the foundation for further advancing online administrative procedures. Although the figures for Phase 2 are still low, METI will firmly work on it.

On the other hand, there are quite a wide range of related departments, so I would like to proceed efficiently so that the person in charge at the site can see the steps while looking at how to use the survey and its scope. From that perspective, METI may make various inquiries to the Digi-Cho, and I would like to ask for their cooperation.

In particular, I have heard that the deadline has recently been extended, and I would like to thank you very much for your consideration. In any case, I believe that these surveys and digitalisation are very important, and METI would like to continue to cooperate as much as possible or make it known to everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

That's all.

Hasui Deputy Director-General: Thank you for .

In particular, as I mentioned at the beginning, the number of surveys on administrative procedures was extremely large. In particular, the Diet and other bodies were also involved, and in addition, with regard to the budget and other matters, while you are busy with various matters in the run-up to the next policy, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you at all government ministries and agencies for your hard work. Thank you.

From that perspective, we would like to sincerely respond to the previous inquiries and others, and we would appreciate your continued cooperation. Thank you.

I wonder if you have any other questions or comments. Would that be all right?

Thank you very much, Deputy Director-General Nishimura. I would like to ask for your continued support.

As you have just mentioned, if there is any information that we would like to share with local businesses or any projects that we would like to work on in cooperation with the relevant ministries and agencies, including digitalisation and digital transformation initiatives in the areas under our jurisdiction, we would appreciate your cooperation at this Liaison Meeting. As I mentioned earlier, Digital Agency will also be accompanying and supporting them, and by further deepening cooperation and collaboration with the relevant ministries and agencies, we would like to promote digital transformation of public procedures and digital transformation of businesses, so I would appreciate your cooperation.

The Secretariat will contact you at a later date regarding the schedule of the next meeting.

Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us today.

This concludes the 7th Inter-Ministerial Meeting on Business digitalisation. Thank you very much.