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9th Digital Society Initiative Conference

Last Updated:

Overview

  • Date and time: Wednesday, April 24, 2024, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
  • Location: Online
  • Agenda:
    1. Opening
    2. Agenda
      1. Toward the Revision of the "Priority Plan for the Realization of a Digital Society"
    3. Adjournment

Meeting Video

The conference can be viewed on YouTube (Digital Agency official channel).

Material

Minutes

Office: The Good morning. It's on time, so we will now begin the 9th "Digital Society Concept Conference".

Today's meeting will be held online.

Today's meeting will be open to the public, including the general public and the press, after consultation with Chairman Murai, and will be broadcast live through a Teams live event.

In addition, today's materials have already been posted on the Digital Agency website, so if you would like to see the live broadcast, we would appreciate it if you could look at it at your hand as appropriate.

Today, 10 members are attending online. Please note that members Mikitani and Muraoka will not be attending, while members Kuniryo, Natsuno, and Wakamiya will be asked to leave in the middle. We have received materials from members Mikitani and Muraoka, who will not be attending. In addition, Minister Kono, Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Ishikawa, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Tsuchida, and other officials from Digital Agency will be attending.

Well, Mr. Murai, please start.

Chairman Murai: and colleagues. I would like to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this meeting this early in the morning.

My name is Murai and I am the leader of the group. Nice to meet you.

As stated in the agenda, today's meeting will be titled "Formulation of' Priority Plan for the Promotion of the Digital Society,'" and it will be an opportunity to hear the opinions of the members. First, the Secretariat will give an explanation, and then we will proceed as usual as we enter into your discussions. I would like you to manage questions and others with the button of a show of hands, so please do so.

First of all, I would like to start the proceedings. I would like you to explain about Priority Plan. There will be a review of the Personal Information Protection Act in the upcoming three year review, which will have a very significant meaning for data use. Regarding that, I have asked you to organize the voices of business operators and others, so please explain that from the secretariat as well. Thank you very much.

Director-General Tomiyasu: This is Tomiyasu from Director-General, . Nice to meet you.

First of all, I would like to explain based on Material 1. In advance, Material 1 was distributed as a slightly thicker material because it was a digital-related initiative after the formulation of Priority Plan last year. Today, I will choose a page and explain the main points in an overview. After that, in two pages of two, I would like to introduce the initiatives that were suggested by the Conceptual Committee that we should visualize progress management, and lastly, I would like to introduce the key points for this year's revision of Priority Plan, and I would like to hear various opinions from the committee members. Thank you.

First, please turn to page 9 of Handout 1. As part of our efforts for digital common infrastructure, we are spreading, expanding, and promoting My Number Card, and expanding its use. We have received 99 million applications and 79.1% of applications from the public. Although it is not mentioned here, firstly, as the issuance of new health insurance cards, which is being promoted in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, will be completed in December this year, we are promoting the use of My Number Card as the Health Insurance Certificate, which uses My Number Card as a health insurance card. In the handout shown here, we are introducing efforts utilizing the Digital Garden City Grant to expand use cases. From the right, we are working with local governments to expand various use cases, including the digital window, online application, delivery at convenience stores, and citizen portals.

Let's move on to page 12. Regarding the expansion of its use in the private sector, it is being implemented with the cooperation of private sector as a verification test in the entertainment field. To briefly introduce it, identity verification has been made in situations that require various verification test and age-confirmation, such as age-confirmation at various events, confirmation to enter the special area in the middle, and the second notification from the bottom about entering the mountain.

Let's move on to page 14. In the center is Mynaportal, where you can use My Number Card to view and obtain your information held by administrative agencies. Since online application is available, we have opened the APIs in Mynaportal, and on the left, private APIs are providing users with access to health and medical apps and the Disability Certificate app, and we are expanding initiatives to allow users to combine their own services.

Next, I would like to speak about business operators. We are promoting the spread of gBizID as a system that allows business operators to use a single ID to authenticate themselves through multiple administrative procedures. As you can see in the figures, the number of gBizID Prime users is 1.13 million, and as you can see below, the number of connected systems is 172 in the national and local governments and others. We are also promoting the spread of these systems.

In addition, one of the efforts related to business operators is on page 19. We have submitted a legal amendment to this ordinary session of the Diet. In the development of the base registry, as shown in the picture, when changes are made to registered matters such as name and location, separate notifications are required if approval or subsidies are received from various administrative agencies in addition to registration. However, in the future, once the registration is changed, the data can be connected to other necessary administrative agencies, and we aim to complete the procedure only once in the future.

Next, I would like to briefly introduce initiatives related to digital government. It is on page 23. It is the so-called Government Cloud. On the left is the "Selected Cloud Service," and on the left is the Sakura cloud. Although it is subject to meeting the requirements by the end of fiscal 2025, we added it last year.

In addition, the number of places where the Government Cloud is actually being used is increasing, and as you can see on the right, I am sorry to print in small letters in red, but the number of systems is also steadily increasing, with 156 systems in place in local governments, 88 in national governments, and 68 in other countries.

Next is the Government Solution Service. The Government Solution Service is to create a new inter-ministerial network by integrating the LANs of each ministry and eliminating duplication. The current situation is shown in the red frame. The number of locations and users has gradually increased, and the total for fiscal year R5 in the middle is written below, and it is 1,280 locations and about 27000 users. This initiative is to have each ministry integrate the LANs of each ministry into the Government Solution Service (GSS) as the timing of renewal comes. On the right, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Mr. Ministry of Justice, or Mr. National Tax Agency, as a ministry that is preparing to introduce it in the future, is preparing for it over seven years from 2024.

In addition, below is the digital marketplace, which is designed to simplify and speed up government procurement, especially for SaaS. By speeding up procurement, it is also intended to expand opportunities for small and medium-sized vendors and startups to enter the market. At present, we are building a demonstration version of the catalog site. As you can see in the red below, currently 270 businesses and 300 software are registered. From the second half of this fiscal year, we would like to release a catalog site for the actual digital marketplace, so we are continuing to verify it and considering it for the actual launch.

Next is the unification and standardization of core business systems for local governments. As indicated by the red line, we are currently proceeding according to the roadmap. Digital Agency has appointed a Standardization Liaison Officer for each of the 47 prefectures, and we are carefully communicating with them.

In addition, recently, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and Digital Agency conducted hearings on organizations that have systems that are difficult to migrate even for one of the 20 core operations, and are carefully responding to them as difficult to migrate. There are 171 organizations.

In addition, we are working to provide various common functions used by local governments in the digital government in Digital Agency. On page 30, the Municipal DX services counter "One-stop, no writing service" means that even if you do not use digital, if you go to the counter, you can proceed with the procedure without writing anything if there is a My Number Card by collaborating in the backyard. Currently, 17 local governments are doing this on the Gabakura regarding counter DXSaaS.

Next, it is on page 34. It is called the benefits support service. This is also used in the recent benefits for low-income earners. I apologize for the small print, but in order to complete the process from application to transfer digitally and realize quick and efficient benefits, we have created benefits SaaS in Digital Agency and are now providing it to local governments. Although the number of municipalities that have introduced it is in the red, it was 15 in fiscal 2023 and is expected to be 172 in fiscal 2024.

Next is about data. It will be from page 38 onwards.

First of all, on page 39, at the end of last year, we formulated the AI Action Plan. On the left side, there are three initiatives to ensure data quality. We will review the Government Interoperability Framework, or GIF, which is the basic rule for data standardization, and strengthen its dissemination for utilization. And the second one on the left will promote the development of the base registry that I mentioned earlier. The third one below is the utilization of generative data.

Moving on to the right, we have initiatives to develop tools and systems for data-related collaboration. The first initiative is to promote data-related collaboration in public sector and semi-public sector, and build data-related infrastructure. In the middle, we will promote demonstrations for data-related collaboration, and develop tools such as connectors with the aim of a so-called data-space economy. And at the lower right, we have initiatives to build an international framework for the realization of the so-called DFFT, which is called the IAP.

I would like to show you some information about semi-public sector. It's on page 42. In the medical field, we have formulated a roadmap and are working together with Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. As I explained at the beginning, we will accelerate the integration of My Number Card and health insurance cards. In the middle, information will be shared among medical institutions and pharmacies, and we will expand the medical information that can be viewed at Mynaportal. And further down, to improve the efficiency of the system for medical institutions, we are working on a drastic modernization of the system through a common calculation module for medical fees in DX of the process of Medical Fees Revisions, according to the roadmap.

Next, I would like to introduce some more of semi-public sector. On page 46, on the left, there is a so-called educational digital transformation service map. We are building a service map and catalog site so that you can easily get information on digital services in the education field. A beta version was released in March 2006 based on opinions from experts and users.

Next, it is on page 47. As a demonstration for the use of so-called learning logs, we are conducting such a demonstration project in Kagoshima City. Here, we are introducing examples.

The next topic is disaster risk reduction in semi-public sector. Regarding disaster risk reduction, which is in the middle section, we will cooperate with relevant ministries and agencies to promote the development and use of disaster risk reduction apps to support residents and catalogue these apps. Cabinet Office Disaster Risk Reduction is also working together to build a data linkage platform to support these apps.

Next, on page 51, we are doing various works using My Number Card. I would like to introduce the results of the first meeting. As stated in (1), in order to improve the efficiency of the evacuation shelter admission procedure, a 90.2% work reduction effect was seen in the admission procedure using My Number Card.

In addition, for example, they answered (vi) that obtaining drug and medical information leads to a sense of security. In fact, I have heard that reading drug and medical information was effective during the recent earthquake in Noto.

Next, we formulated a two year roadmap for the 10,000 items related to the elimination of analog regulations in review of analog regulations that we were working on in the so-called digital ad hoc consultations, and we are monitoring the progress. We will have to review 1,800 items each in March and June of this year, so we are currently reviewing the 10,000 items steadily while confirming the status of our efforts with each ministry and review of analog regulations.

Next, I would like to ask about the second major issue of managing and visualizing the progress of policies on page 59. The purpose of this project is to visualize and disclose data information that is easy to understand for all parties concerned, including the relevant ministries and agencies and local governments, so that we can gain their cooperation in promoting policies, understand the overall progress, and find advanced initiatives and best practices.

The right side of page 60 is the website of Digital Agency, and it is a list of dashboards related to policies. Here, if you click here, you can see dashboards related to My Number Card, initiatives by local governments such as child-raising, and online measures. In fact, the policy dashboard on page 61 shows the spread of My Number Card and the use of health insurance cards. If you go to the next page, on page 62, it shows the status of online measures for 26 procedures for child-raising and long-term care insurance at the local government and municipal level. It shows the percentage of local governments where the 26 measures are online. For example, Chiba and Yamanashi prefectures in the center in dark blue are 100%. Also, if you break them down on page 63, we have made efforts to show which procedures of each local government are online.

In addition, page 64 shows the progress of the analog regulations I mentioned earlier.

Next, as number 3, I would like to discuss the points for the next revision of the Priority Plan.

Please refer to page 66. The basic concept of Priority Plan has been the vision of the society that Japan ultimately aims for through digital technologies and the six visions of the digital society that Japan aims for. These visions have been carried on from Priority Plan. However, after conducting various interviews with experts and others, I believe that the vision will remain unchanged. That is why I set them here.

It is on page 67. Regarding the current issues that need to be addressed more intensively, I would firstly like to point out three. These are labor shortages (strained resources), declining industrial competitiveness, and threats to sustainability due to frequent disasters.

(2) This is about "anxiety and hesitation about' digitalization.'" I would like to introduce some of the reasons. Some people do not think digitalization in society is good, some people say it has not been applied to digitalization, and compared to other countries, people are more restrained about trying to use digital tools.

Let me show you the figures on page 68. On page 68, we started to collect various satisfaction data from the members of the Conceptual Meeting last year. In that sense, for example, on the top right, "Among those who have used digital administrative services, those who are satisfied." It is currently written as 29%. When I obtained the figures last year, I thought it was very important for us to raise this 29%. In this discussion, for example, on the top left, "Those who think digitalization in society is good." In the grey area, 12% of the people do not think it is good. Or on the bottom right, "Those who want to continue using digital administrative services." In contrast to this, 24% of the people in the grey area do not want to use digital administrative services. This is the current situation.

Next, on page 69, the "Status of Japan as Revealed by Other Surveys" refers to the level of satisfaction of the Japanese people with government and private services. Both levels are extremely low compared to other countries.

Next, on page 70, there are three dots in the middle. In response to the question, "Do you allow friction and use tools anyway?" Japan is lower than the average of the 10 countries.

In addition, as a private-sector survey on Japan's stance toward digitalization, which I picked up for your reference, it is divided into four clusters. As for the items that have an impact when dividing the population into four groups, the digitally active group, the neutral group, the left-behind group, and the anti-digital group, I am afraid to say in light letters on the right, age and other information are written. Some of them are related to administrative affairs, and the reality is that administrative intention to use online services and awareness of administrative online services have an impact.

On the next page, in response to the question of which aspects of the administrative services each cluster would like to improve, those in the digital-active group answered design and operability, and the most common response among the left-behind group was a support system for when there is something they do not understand.

Based on this as well, I would like to introduce the direction of our response to each of the priority issues I mentioned earlier in two pages. Firstly, the strengthening of digital industrial infrastructure, the thorough utilization of AI and data, and the modernization of digital industries on both the supply and demand sides.

The second point is to strengthen sustainability by addressing each issue through digital technologies. The second point is that it is necessary to promote data collaboration, build a data space, and strengthen efforts through public-private cooperation with an international perspective, as well as to strengthen risk management to prevent the loss of data in case of emergency.

Regarding (3), based on the public's response to digital as I mentioned earlier, rather than aiming for digitalization, I summarized the order of thinking as follows: resolve issues by utilizing digital technologies. Through the resolution of issues, we will strengthen initiatives that will eventually become the norm for digitalization. That is what is written here.

Then, in (4), I wrote the perspective of the development and operation of national and local digital common infrastructure in order to maintain public services in the face of the declining population and labor shortage.

In addition, in (5), based on the direction of international cooperation with like-minded countries, I have introduced some specific initiatives starting on page 74. In order to strengthen and accelerate the construction of common digital infrastructure, we will build common digital infrastructure and develop common digital infrastructure such as digital IDs. We will advance the future action plan determined by the Overall Review of My Number Information HQ to prevent recurrence, or we will advance initiatives to expand the use of the My Number system, which I explained at the beginning. In addition, in (2), we will develop an environment for an inclusive digital society. In (3), we will firmly develop digital human resources.

Let me move on to page 75. Regarding (2), we are working to review services and systems in review of analog regulations based on the digital principles at the digital meeting. I believe such efforts are extremely important. We will firmly reform and build systems, including services and systems, and I believe it is important to view the systems, systems, and services as a whole and work to ensure consistency among them in an integrated manner. I believe we will review both new policies and existing systems from such perspectives. First of all, I have written examples of measures from semi-public sector, such as medical institutions, schools, and birth.

In addition, the four points on the arrow feather describe the strengthening of screening of digital legislation to confirm conformity with the newly established digital principles of laws and regulations, and the same applies to new policies going forward.

Next, it is on page 76. Strengthening digital government involves the standardization and modernization of public sector systems. I believe it is important to eliminate overlapping investments and to avoid resources being stuck in old technologies. As initiatives, the central government, local governments, and semi-public sector have organized their views. As for the central government, I believe they will use existing products such as regulated SaaS with minimal customization and develop basic functions that can be shared such as the government cloud.

In addition, it is extremely important for local governments to support the promotion of the standardization of core business systems, which they are currently working on. In addition, the national and local governments will cooperate and collaborate to promote the efficient development of the digital infrastructure.

In (2), the thorough utilization of SaaS means using rather than creating, and I think it is very important to expand the application of technologies used in the private sector to public sector.

Next, it is on page 77. In order to solve issues and strengthen competitiveness using data, first of all, to strengthen data distribution and collaboration, and to work on using data to solve social issues, it describes the construction of data space and consideration of an international framework such as rules on data, which is a prerequisite for data space.

Next, I would like to talk about disaster prevention digital transformation. In terms of solving issues through data linkage, examples of measures include the use of My Number Card, the establishment of a digital platform for disaster prevention, and the development and utilization of apps. And third is trust. As securing trust is important as a prerequisite for data utilization, it is written as creating use cases related to digital identity and forming technical standards based on international cooperation.

Next, it is on page 78. Among the priority measures to address the priority issues, I touched on the fifth point, security, and various examples of measures because ensuring security is essential in the sense of safe and secure systems.

In terms of initiatives related to cutting-edge technology, the Government of Japan as a whole will thoroughly utilize cutting-edge technology, including AI.

Next, regarding the discussion on the revision of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, which was instructed by the chairman, I have organized it because I was instructed to collect the voices of business people and business operators.

It is Material 2. Briefly, regarding the review of the current Personal Information Protection Act every three years, the Personal Information Protection Act has a provision to review it every three years after the enforcement of the revised law, and fiscal 2025 is the next scheduled review period. I am aware that the CIPS is currently reviewing the review. The law itself originally states that the rights and interests of individuals should be protected while giving consideration to appropriate utilization, and that the balance between utilization and protection should be achieved.

Digital Agency also listened to the opinions of experts and business operators, which we would like to introduce. It is on page 3. First of all, regarding the establishment of a provision that does not require the consent of the principal in the provision of personal data to third parties, etc., for example, the concept of eliminating excessive reliance on the consent of the principal by introducing the concepts of contract performance, legitimate interests, and public interests is consistent with the GDPR, which is the legal system for the protection of personal information in Europe. For example, regarding what kind of contracts there are, when transferring money overseas, banks transfer money overseas at the request of customers, and business operators have pointed out whether it is necessary for financial institutions to provide information on the system of the other country and obtain consent.

The second issue is the utilization of statistical data. Under the current law, it is only allowed to conduct in-house analysis of processed pseudonymous information, which is information about individuals whose names have been deleted, and it is not allowed to combine and analyze data from multiple companies. However, there are cases where analysis of a large number of data is effective. Therefore, there were opinions such as how it would be possible for a business operator that analyzes only this pseudonymous data to conduct statistical analysis and provide it to other companies.

The third point is to limit the scope of leakage reports to those that are truly necessary. According to the rules of the NAIIC, those that may have occurred are subject to reporting, but under the law, it is understood that there is a significant risk of harming the rights and interests of individuals. Therefore, there have been calls for a risk-based approach to be applied to "those that are highly likely to harm the rights and interests of individuals."

In addition, in terms of flexible interpretation and operation to provide the optimal public services to individuals, in cases where it leads to improving the convenience of individuals in efforts such as base registry, the point is that it is necessary to review the current rigid interpretation and operation of the regulations on the purpose of use of personal information.

The fifth is opinions on the strengthening of regulations. Regarding the new rules on information for children, there are opinions that Children and Families Agency, which is in charge of child administration, needs to consider it comprehensively. In addition, there are opinions that the introduction of surcharges should be avoided hastily because it may have an unexpected chilling effect on businesses. Regarding the group litigation system, there are opinions that sufficient discussions with related parties are necessary and hasty introduction should be avoided because the accumulation of legislative facts is not sufficient. In addition, there are opinions on how it should be reviewed every three years.

We have thus introduced the opinions of business operators. Thank you in advance.

Chairman Murai: .

Now, I would like to ask for greetings from Mr. Kono, Minister for Digital Transformation, here. Minister Kono, please.

Mr. Kono, Minister for Digital Transformation,: Good morning. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Chairman Murai and all the other members for attending the Digital Society Initiative Meeting early in the morning, despite being very busy today.

As Mr. Director-General Tomiyasu just explained, in the past year, we have promoted the spread and utilization of My Number Card, and eliminated errors in connection, etc. through a comprehensive inspection. Going forward, we will firmly promote the use of IC, including direct reading to eliminate human errors.

In addition, the new international framework on DFFT agreed in G7 Digital and Technology Ministers' Meeting in Takasaki, Gunma last year was approved at the G7 Summit and the OECD meeting in December, and we were able to create a new framework called the IAP under the OECD. With Japan holding the presidency of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting during the consecutive holidays in May, I intend to firmly hold this meeting.

In addition, the various analog regulations are steadily moving toward abolition, and by the end of May at least the floppy disk will be abolished in the national administration. Foreign countries often say, "How many inches of floppy disk do you use?" Floppy disks have disappeared, and I think that the next step will be the abolition of fax machines.

In addition, as the control tower for the utilization of AI in the government, Digital Agency will not only create speech proposals on ChatGPT, but also improve the efficiency of government administration. In conjunction with the digital administrative and fiscal reform, what has been done by 1,741 local governments under the name of local autonomy will be standardized work, shared systems, and policy selection for local autonomy. Although we will do local autonomy, the central government, including semi-public sector, will to a certain extent develop systems or data-linkage infrastructure, and develop government clouds. I would like local governments to shift to the phase of making full use of systems, not building them.

In addition, as you just explained, we will strengthen our efforts on the dashboard of policy-data, firmly disclose on our website the status of DX promotion in areas such as the spread of My Number Card, the standardization of the work of review of analog regulations and local governments, the shift to Gabakura, and education and child-rearing, and firmly spread a culture of data-based policy-making and execution management in Kasumigaseki.

Today, I look forward to frank discussions on the priority issues that need to be addressed in the lead-up to Priority Plan this summer, as well as on how those issues should be resolved. Thank you very much.

: Thank you very much.

Chairman Murai: , thank you very much.

Then, I would like to hear the opinions of the members. There are materials from two members who are absent today, Mr. Mikitani and Mr. Muraoka, so please introduce them from the secretariat.

Office: The Let me give you a brief introduction.

First, Exhibit 3 is the materials submitted by Mr. Mikitani. The "1. tax system Reform" includes tax cuts to attract human resources, intellectual property, and investment in the AI era. The "2. regulatory reform Reform" includes the withdrawal of the proposal for a uniform ban on certain Internet sales of pharmaceuticals that lacks a reasonable basis, and the development of a new ride-sharing law to achieve the national minimum of ensuring mobility.

Let's go to the next page. Abolition of the requirement for articles of incorporation to be certified by a notary public in order to enable the prompt establishment of a corporation, examination of revisions to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information in order to promote smooth and sound data utilization, and promotion of the use and opening of educational data.

Finally, as "3. Competition Policy," we received a paper on the effective resolution of problems caused by the oligopolistic structure of mobile OS and app stores under the new law and the ensuring of a fair competitive environment in the telecommunications field based on the NTT Law.

Next is Document 4, a document from Muraoka.

Regarding the first circle, I would like to ask for detailed support according to the actual conditions of local governments for the transition to standard compliance system using the Government Cloud. In order to resolve various concerns about the cost burden on local governments, I would like to ask for special consideration for financial support for additional costs that are not the responsibility of local governments.

As for the second circle, it is planned to end the current issuance of health insurance cards and shift to a system based on My Number Card as the Health Insurance Certificate in December this year. Therefore, I would like to ask you to carefully respond to the significance and benefits of the integration. I would like you to focus on the utilization of cards in the field of disaster prevention.

Finally, I would like to ask for continued generous support so that the development of advanced information and telecommunications networks in remote islands and underpopulated areas will not lag behind urban areas. I would also like to ask for the improvement of the disaster resilience of terrestrial networks and the active utilization of non-terrestrial networks such as satellite communications to be included. We have received such opinions.

Chairman Murai: .

Now, I would like to hear the opinions of the members. There are people who have left in the middle and are running out of time, so I will ask them to speak first. Wakamiya-san, please.

Wakamiya Member: I am Wakamiya .

Digital Agency has just started, but you are doing various things, which I think is great. However, those of us who associate with so-called "analog natives" say that in order to do more and more of this, it is absolutely necessary to educate the people, and local governments are teaching operation procedures, but first of all, it is necessary to explain to the people, using videos, etc., in an easy-to-understand manner, why we have to do this kind of digitalization and what it means to do digitalization.

Until now, the window of the city hall was at the actual city hall, but from now on, I think the window will be on the website of each city hall. Therefore, I would like you to take good care of the website in order to place importance on how you can make people understand on the website, and how you can make the general public know the thoughts of the central and local governments.

Also, for those of you who don't really know what a digitalization is, for example, a digitalization medication notebook would make it easier for the general public to understand whether it is a digitalization. In that way, I would like to have a sample of a digitalization that anyone can understand. Thank you very much.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

Well, Natsuno-san is planning to leave in the middle of the meeting, so can I ask you to do it?

Member Natsuno: : Thank you very much.

I think this comprehensive report has been compiled in a truly excellent form, but I have the impression that three or four years after the establishment of Digital Agency, the three pronged approach of systems, systems, and operations on page 75 has finally taken root. When I talk about digital, I always talk about systems, security, and other system-related issues, but I feel that the three pronged approach of changing systems in response to new technologies and thinking about how operations will change is finally taking root, as I see in the policies of other ministries and agencies.

So, in the future, in order to further spread this three pronged approach of systems, systems, and services across the entire government, I think it is important for Digital Agency to properly check them in various ways. I think this is an idea similar to the Digital Legislative Bureau concept that has been around for a long time, and I thought it was very important to properly check systems and laws when they are enacted.

That's all.

Chairman Murai: : Thank you very much.

Then, members of the Kokuryo who are leaving early as well, please.

Member of Kokuryo: From my side, I would like to express my respect for the efforts made by the members of the secretariat, the members of the Digital TV Agency, and the ministers. Indeed, I think it has become more and more convenient in various aspects, and although there are various problems here and there, I think it is important to solve these problems one by one.

In that regard, Item 2 of the draft points for the revision on page 73, "Direction for Responding to Priority Issues," is the basic policies of Priority Plan this time, and I think it is an important page. I would like to make two somewhat contradictory statements. In particular, as a result of (3), I think it is a very good thing to strengthen initiatives that make "digitalization" a "matter of course." In many cases, the outcome is expressed in terms of the image of the output, that is, how much My Number Card has spread. I would like to set a KPI or performance target for how much it has improved in the end. If it can be conveyed to the people in an easy-to-understand manner, I believe that the evaluation of the initiatives and the understanding of the people will be deepened as a result. My first point is that it would be good to focus on how to express this.

The second point is, although it may not be easy to understand immediately, and although it may take some time, for example, what I have in mind now is the issue of the base registry. I believe that it is important to properly develop the database as the top priority. Therefore, for example, although I am not sure if this falls under this item, if the idea of properly developing the database is reflected in (4) Development and Operation of the Common Infrastructure, I believe that it will firmly function as a point for the next Priority Plan, so I would like you to consider it.

That's all. Thank you.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

Member KAWABE, please go ahead.

KAWABE, Member: First of all, thank you very much for your explanation at the beginning.

I think there are many people who are watching today, so I would like to mention that Digital Agency's wide-ranging plan to completely replace the analog administrative system created after the World War II or from the Meiji period with a digital system is truly remarkable, and I would like to express my respect to the fact that it is being implemented very quietly in a sense.

As I see it overall, the phase of developing the system is coming to an end, and we are now moving on to the phase of promoting the system by involving the local governments and other ministries and agencies that will use it. Even if the phase changes from developing the system to promoting it, I would like Digital Agency to take the same leadership.

With that in mind, I would like to make a few references to the documents. First of all, regarding the Government Cloud Common Platform in Documents 1-1 and 1-4, which are around Pages 6 to 11 in the documents, I would like to see them registered and disseminated as well. However, what we should originally aim for is the usage ratio and satisfaction level. From here, I would like people in the Digital Agency to get into the field of users and raise the usage ratio and satisfaction level. I would like you to start improving KGI in a true manner. If I say that it is the job of the Digital agency until it provides services, each ministry and local government will not have enough digital human resources, and I think there is quite a possibility that it will not be able to raise the usage ratio or satisfaction level. I would like the Digital agency to take leadership including that point.

Next is 1-2, digital government. Today, I am also speaking as the chairman of the IT Federation, and I often hear the voices of regional vendors who are members of the IT Federation, so I would like to mention that the on-schedule is to standardize the 20 government cloud services by 2025. This is truly wonderful, but small and medium-sized local governments have so-called one person information system problems, and they often cannot use the 20 government cloud services. For example, including the conversion to SaaS, it would be good to prepare something that can be shared by multiple local governments for other than the 20 services.

Also, security measures can be difficult to implement if one person is responsible for everything, so I hope Digital Agency will take the lead in areas such as human resource development, for example, by standardizing them so that everyone can use them.

Lastly, regarding the revision of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, I will not go into too much detail about the results of the hearings with the industry since they were announced earlier. However, if I were to mention three points, I would like to point out that there are multiple labels for personal information and they are very difficult to understand. I think there is confusion. This needs to be fixed.

Also, what is currently talked about in the industry is that the review every three years was decided for the purpose of updating, but if that is the case, it will always be revised, and there is concern that the content will become stricter every three years. Therefore, I think it should be revised after three years if something is updated, but I think the wording of the review every three years should be revised.

Lastly, I would like to ask you to revise the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. Currently, Japan's Personal Information Protection Law is revised and strengthened every three years, and there are concerns that harmonization between domestic rules and international rules may not be well achieved. I think it would be good for us to have our own point of view, but I would like to ask you to make this consistent with international standards as much as possible.

That's all from me.

Chairman Murai: : Thank you very much.

Well, Mr. Ikeda, please start.

IKEDA: We've heard a lot about Good morning. This is Ikeda speaking.

First of all, the revision proposal for Priority Plan incorporates revisions in response to the changing times, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the people of Digital Agency.

As stated in the earlier document, One-stop, no writing service was one of the first to introduce it in this city, and it is already in operation. I would like to express my gratitude to Digital Agency for introducing the SaaS system, which enabled us to introduce a high-quality system in a short period of time and at a relatively low cost. This system is a horizontal development of successful examples from other local governments, but I hope that similar concept systems will be actively deployed in other fields and systems where effects are expected.

The second point is about the use of My Number Card's health insurance card. As the Muraoka members mentioned earlier, I believe that it is necessary to develop strong PR activities as widely as possible with the national and local governments firmly working together before the use begins. I would like to ask for your cooperation in this regard.

The third question is about the standardization of local government systems and the transition to the Government Cloud, which have raised concerns among local governments within the Japan Association of City Mayors. Currently, costs remain high due to the impact of the weak yen and other factors, as well as resource shortages among business operators and other issues, which I believe are factors of concern for local governments. The shortage of digital human resources that you mentioned earlier is also becoming a growing concern, especially among town and village assemblies.

I am aware that Digital Agency has already taken various measures in close cooperation with the local governments. In the event of an emergency, the project would affect the people of Okinawa, so I would appreciate it if the local governments would continue to listen carefully to the voices of the local governments.

Fourth, as you mentioned earlier about efforts to make digital a matter of course, I believe it is very important to continue to provide services that people can feel convenient.

In addition, in our basic local governments at the very end of the digitalization, we will directly work with elderly people who are completely unfamiliar with digital technology, and I believe it is also very important to have a system that can be easily used by such elderly people. In this city, we are directly supporting the use of various services for elderly people, but I always tell our staff to work with analog technology, and I believe it is necessary to firmly advance such grassroots initiatives.

Last but not least, material 2, "Opinions from the business field regarding the Act on the Protection of Personal Information," was mentioned earlier in the material. It mentions flexible operation and interpretation to provide the most appropriate public services to individuals. Naturally, we are fully aware that the protection of personal information is important. On the other hand, especially in public sector, it is possible to improve the convenience of individuals by making the interpretation of the use of personal data of individuals, which is already stored for a different purpose by the relevant administrative agency at the request of the individual, more flexible. We believe that it is necessary to define specific usage scenarios and operations that can be understood by the public in the future. We would appreciate your continued discussions, including this point. Thank you very much.

That's all from me.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

Please continue, Member Ito.

Prof. Ito: Thank you, : Thank you very much.

I am as grateful as everyone else. This may be similar to what Mr. Natsuno was saying, but of course I think services and various operations are difficult, but various policies and the technical capabilities of Digital Agency are overwhelming, and there are many people and the level must be higher than other ministries and agencies. For example, with regard to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, there are various American reports on privacy protection technology and AI. There are various risks, such as bias and discrimination being included in the model, or personal information being extracted from the data analysis even though it does not contain personal information. At the same time, methods for creating a model that is very easy to use while protecting privacy are also being developed at both the research and applied levels. With this technology, laws that were impossible in the past have been introduced, and it is technically possible to say that such things are disgusting or that they are good if only the personal information is collected very roughly. Therefore, if the latest technology is not discussed at the time of legislation and policy formulation, old-fashioned laws will be created. Since laws are difficult to change once they are created, engineers with the latest technical information, including those at the Digital TV Agency, are needed in the discussions, not in the brainstorming sessions afterwards.

In addition, it is very important to have human resources who have both humanities skills in the government, such as law and economics, and the latest science skills, so I think human resource development is important, and a report in Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says that there will be a shortage of 450,000 to 800,000 IT engineers in 2030. This may be a little old data, but this human resource development is a very important point in the future, including local areas, and I think you all know this well. However, if we just keep doing it as we have been doing so far, it will not be enough, so I think human resource development should be a high priority.

At the end of last year, there was a lot of excitement about AI safety, which of course had its own biases, but it became a global topic of discussion, such as what to do if AI or super AI were released, how to use AI to attack cybersecurity, and what to do about bioterrorism. The US and the UK established the AI Safety Institute. The UK's AI Safety Institute is mostly staffed by engineers, while the Japanese one is more focused on policy. The technical capabilities of AI safety are important at various layers. Whether or not we can create analyzable AI, whether or not we can guard against it, and whether or not we can red-team with it are all very important. Those functions have not yet been strengthened, so the AI Safety Institute was established within the IPA, and Mr. Murakami-san was appointed as its head. The technical capabilities layer should be properly supported by the Digi Agency, and when we have to communicate with the UK, we have to communicate with engineers. This is also true for policy, but we also need a team to communicate technically with overseas AI Safety Institutes, and we need to establish that somewhere. The other point is that AI safety is not only related to AI but also to some aspects of national security. The AI Safety Institute has personnel from various ministries and agencies, but if they are not properly supported and there is no horizontal collaboration, AI safety cannot be achieved. Therefore, how the Digi Agency supports AI safety and how the government can do it is also very important. I am most concerned that there are not many people in charge here, and I am thinking that it would be nice if the Digi Agency could support this as well. cybersecurity

I'll stop here for now. That's all.

Chairman Murai: .

Now, Mr. Noda, please proceed.

NODA: : Thank you very much.

As you all said, I think we have really made a lot of progress in one year. I would like to start by thanking you. Thank you.

To manage and visualize the progress of policies, the Policy Dashboard was explained and followed up in great detail, which I thought was a very good initiative. I think this is a meaningful initiative as an internal organizational management tool to check how far policies are progressing. In addition, I think it is also very important to show from the public's perspective what kind of society is being realized now by using digital from the public's perspective, that is, how close we have come to the six visions of society that we should originally aim for. Digital is only an enabler, that is, a tool, and I think it is important to manage the progress in a dashboard-like way to show how far the lives of the people have become convenient and how much the quality of life has improved in line with the six visions, and how far it has progressed in one year. I felt that it would be nice if there was a mechanism that would prevent the digital tool from becoming a purpose without the people.

Next, regarding the issues on page 67 that you should focus on, you are aware of the three issues of labor shortages, the decline of industrial competitiveness throughout the country, and threats to sustainability, and I think you are right. I think this is a very important point, but as Mayor Ikeda said earlier, the problems in rural areas are also very serious. As Noto Peninsula Earthquake exposed, the infrastructure in rural areas is in a critical situation, and the problem of productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas is also serious. Wages at large companies are rising, but wages at small and medium-sized enterprises are not rising. How to raise labor productivity at small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas and raise wages? I think digital is indispensable for solving these local issues, so I think it is good to come up with a more local perspective. In particular, how to protect the aging infrastructure in rural areas, where the population is shrinking rapidly, using digital technology is a very important perspective.

The third point is to respond to priority issues. As Minister Kono mentioned, it is important for the 1,800 local governments not to each create their own system, but to expand the system to a wider area and standardize the system. Cooperation between the central and local governments and wide-area cooperation among local governments are required. It is clear that it is no longer possible for a single local government to respond. Therefore, I think it is necessary to fundamentally change the structure in which each local government works hard to develop and create a system that supports cooperation.

From the perspective of sustainability, it is also important to strengthen data distribution and collaboration. For example, efforts for a circular economy are progressing in Europe, and efforts are also progressing in Japan recently. Digital technology is essential for building a circular economy, which is a sustainable economic system. There are already moves underway in Europe to attach IDs to products and materials, such as digital passports and material passports, and manage the traceability of the entire value chain, from raw material procurement to product design, manufacturing, collection, recycling, and return to materials and products. Digital technology is essential for a circular economic model, a green economy, to be established only with a data collaboration mechanism. I would like Japan to promote data collaboration from the perspective of forming a new sustainable economic model.

At the end of last year, METI and Ministry of the Environment launched the Industry-Government-Academia Partnership for the Realization of a Circular Economy, and discussions on how to achieve data-linkage have begun. I understand that the use of the Uranus Ecosystem, which is led by METI, as a foundation for data-linkage is currently under consideration, and I would like Digital Agency to consider how to support and collaborate with METI or Ministry of the Environment's initiatives.

That's all.

Chairman Murai: : Thank you very much.

Now, Mr. Koshizuka, please.

Koshizuka Staff: Good morning.

If I were to listen to many sections together, I would like to express my great respect for the fact that you are doing a lot of things and there has been a lot of progress. Also, in that sense, I think it is as other members have said.

I would like to say a few things in detail. The first point is about data. There has been talk about data linkage infrastructure and platform systems, but I feel that this year has seen a clear change in the global phase of data. Uranus was mentioned earlier, and it was also briefly announced yesterday that METI / IPA and Catena-X in Europe would conclude an MOU to respond to battery regulations. I heard that response to CBAM on carbon tariffs is probably underway, and actual operations have begun.

Also, for example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has developed PLATEAU, a digital twin that we can be proud of worldwide, and Digital Garden and Smart City have already been introduced to many local governments in the form of urban operating systems. It is a very big difference that what had been a phase of building such a foundation has clearly been introduced and has now reached the stage of operating and using it. International cooperation on DFFT has also started here, and Japan is also starting to make global contributions. What is very important about data is that it is still being done in a relatively separate manner, so a control tower for the entire country is necessary. It is necessary to realize that many Japanese data initiatives will proceed as one team. Data cooperation is not a competitive area to make profits, but a collaborative area. I think it is necessary to discuss how to manage it sustainably, including the ideal burden.

As for data-related issues, the relationship with AI is also very important. You mentioned LLM and other topics. In AI, multimodal LMM will start after the language model. As for LLM, it is not only re-learning, but also a hybrid with existing databases in order to match the expertise of each domain. Therefore, how to connect the data-integration infrastructure or dataspace with AI will be a very important phase in advancing AI.

As for DFFT, there was a meeting of the OECD last week, and I participated in the meeting as I was a member of the committee. It was an international topic, and about 200 people participated in the meeting, and with 200 people, it was too many to discuss. However, there were three working groups, cross-border payment, privacy enhancement technology, and transparency, and I had a feeling that the discussion started with something less essential. I thought it would be necessary for Japan to lead the working groups more actively or make some proposals. This is the first point regarding data.

My second question is about disaster prevention. The first is that it is important for the public and private sectors to work closely together. Lastly, there are private sectors that deliver disaster prevention information to the public, including broadcasting and the media, so it is important to divide their roles. This is also related to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, which I mentioned earlier. When searching for disaster victims, I believe it is about time to use the location information history of smartphones to possibly save many lives. I believe careful discussion is necessary because the data is quite sensitive, but I think we can put disaster prevention and personal information on the agenda for discussion. This is my second question.

The third point is about the revision of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. As Commissioner Ito mentioned earlier, I think this is probably about privacy enhancement technology. There are technologies such as secure computing, homomorphic encryption, and secret sharing, and this has become a major discussion even within the OECD of DFFT, which I mentioned earlier. I think we should start discussing the relationship between this and the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. At present, things that have been subject to secure computing are probably handled as personal information, so there is no benefit from the release of these PETs, but I think it is important to discuss how to match this with the law.

That's all.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

Well, Mr. Ota, please start.

Member Ota: I'm Mr. Ota, a member of the team. Nice to meet you.

First of all, looking at the summary, I understand that Digital Agency will have been operating for a full three years as of September 1 this year, and that projects are being steadily advanced on a wide range of themes. I would like to make three comments.

First, I think it is very good that you have gone into the issue of carefully monitoring the utilization rate and satisfaction level of the people and companies with digital administrative services, which I have proposed so far. This is not something that can be done once and done for all, but I think we will follow the changes. The current utilization rate of around 50% and satisfaction rate of around 30% are not high by any means, but we have been doing it for three years, and the figures are almost the same as those of Tokyo Prefecture, which has conducted similar fixed-point observations, and although they are not at a satisfactory level, I think they represent the current situation.

On top of that, when it comes to the changes I mentioned earlier, in the end it will be the people, but looking at the situation in Tokyo, it is realistically difficult to see an upturn in six months to a year. It is a matter of five years or so, so I think it would be better to track the changes in a more detailed manner. Specifically, companies are the most beginning to use digital services, including the private sector, and this will include small and medium-sized companies, so one way is to see how companies are doing in cooperation with prefectural governments, which are mainly in charge of services for companies other than the national government.

The other is to look at the satisfaction and utilization rates of administrative staff who provide administrative services. I think this is the fastest growing, so I would like to make a proposal. We can see changes in this area in a year or two, so I think the response will be felt by those who provide and receive services.

The second point is that although I stated at the beginning that Digital Agency, which has been operating for almost three years, is engaged in a wide range of activities, we are operating with one fifth of the personnel, or one tenth of the personnel in terms of fields, which is very small compared to other countries. I believe there is a risk in this, and we need to increase the number of personnel. Initially, the figure was 5,000, but I believe it is necessary to firmly carry out this.

However, it is not realistic to increase the number of staff at once, including recruitment, so for the time being, we will focus on important areas. For example, in the case of confirming the eligibility of health insurance cards that will come in December, which can be used with the cards we currently have, we will expand on a very large scale, so I believe it is necessary to concentrate personnel on these areas and steadily increase the number of staff in the medium term.

My third and final question is, as you have been reflecting on the revitalization of local communities for a full 10 years, I believe that what is happening now in the regions is a positive story. Unless various services are provided not only by the government but also by local financial institutions, including Public-Private Partnership, the regions will not be able to thrive. This has been talked about on paper for a long time, but the new generation is also coming to the financial sector, and we are working to create specific funds and provide financing and investment. So, although the theme is slightly different, we will once again firmly work with the digital garden city. If we do not do this, subsidies and special grants will end, and Dejita is now in its third year. I believe that the future will be connected to the promotion of a digital society on the premise of solid cooperation with financial institutions to prevent this from happening.

That's all.

Chairman Murai: : Thank you very much.

I would like to thank the members of the Forum for Asia and the Pacific for their valuable comments and suggestions. Many of them appreciated our progress. On the other hand, several members of the Forum pointed out, as Mr. Ohta mentioned earlier and Mr. Noda mentioned earlier, the anxiety and hesitation toward digitalization introduced on page 67 and the figure of international comparison on page 69, which indicates that there are many Japanese people who feel uneasy about digitalization.

This is a story from overseas, but it would be easier to understand how effective it was if there was a scenario story, for example, how much easier it was when I went to the counter, or how much time I saved by not going to the counter, as I have told Australians before, how much time public officer used to make phone calls, I can see that it was good to proceed with digitalization based on this indicator.

Whether we live in our daily lives, go to a hospital, or go to a restaurant and order something and have it served by a robot, there are times when we realize how much things have changed. Therefore, I think it is important to compare how much things have improved at before digitalization and after digitalization based on such scenarios and points of interest. I don't know if this is something that government offices do, but if you say Digital Agency, it will be a metric that says that digitalization has been completed 8 out of 10. In that case, those who say we should proceed will think that we have done a good job, but it may not resonate with those who are worried or hesitant. With this in mind, we are finally entering a phase where data is really important, and I think that the issue of the Act on the Protection of Personal Information, as well as international interoperability as Mr. Koshizuka mentioned earlier, will be the key. I hope that we will move forward to that society as it is being created.

Although time is running out, I would like you to listen to the opinions of all the current members and make new statements. Anyone is welcome.

Ikeda-san, please.

IKEDA: We've heard a lot about administration, and as you just said, for example, when citizens come to the city hall, there are probably not many occasions where they feel the benefits of digitalization or the convenience of such things only in the administrative world. There are usually no people who come to the city hall so often every week. For example, in this city, we are working with the Kakari-nai counter that I mentioned earlier, and we started it in February. We also appeal to reporters that in the past, when a family moved, it took 50 minutes for them to move to several divisions, but they sat down at the counter of the Citizens Division and completed the procedure in 15 minutes without moving. As I said earlier, we don't move very often, so it may be difficult to feel the convenience only in the administrative world.

We offer the issuance service at convenience stores. If you go to the service counter at the city hall, you have to pay 300 yen as a service fee. But if you go to a convenience store near you and pick it up at My Number Card, you have to pay 150 yen. In fact, we don't get certificates of residence very often, so there are absolutely few opportunities to feel the benefits of digitalization only in the administrative world. By the way, before we cut the price by half, about 10% of people used convenience stores to obtain certificates of residence. Now, for the past seven years or so, 65% of people have used convenience stores to obtain certificates of residence. I think those who have experienced it once will never come to the service counter again. If the experience is once a year, once every two years, or once every three years, the opportunity to feel convenience will spread much more slowly. In that sense, as I have been saying for some time, I feel that expanding the use of the private sector will be very important in expanding convenience for the people. I would like to say a few words about the discussion just now. Thank you very much.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much. I think your opinion is very valuable.

I also thought that I should make an effort to make it understood as it is a scenario and manga that can appeal it, so I made a statement earlier. What do you think about other people?

Then, Kawabe-san, and Noda-san, please.

KAWABE, Member: I will be brief.

With regard to what you just said, in the case of the Japanese market, I think it is a very big problem that we can't compare digital products because they are used only once or twice a year while analog products are relatively convenient. What we should do is to lead people to use them naturally. On the other hand, I think it is also important to make people like those who consciously stop using digitalization aware. There are people like digital stoppers who love analog products. I think it is very important to make them understand that, for example, young people around them want to promote digitalization more, but they stop there because of their own preferences. In that sense, this nationwide survey and the survey by the Digital TV Agency are important and I want them to continue. However, we should highlight this and give a proper name to them so that they can make the world more convenient by educating them that they are not digital stoppers. Problems such as not being able to secure overall convenience due to the presence of the last 3% of people when updating the OS are common in IT. In such cases, we will notify them through Windows updates, etc. We will teach them that they cannot update the entire system unless they update it quickly, so why don't we give them a name and do something like that? I think I will call them digital stoppers, and I will only make a proposal.

Chairman Murai: : Thank you very much.

Now, Mr. Noda, please proceed.

NODA: As Mr. Kawabe has just said, city hall services have improved a lot in recent years, and I think there are quite a few citizens who think that it is better to be treated with warmth by analog rather than digital. However, the problem is that we cannot maintain the current services of the city hall for the future. With such a labor shortage and a decrease in the number of employees, especially in local areas, I think the current situation that we can no longer meet the expectations of the past is hanging over Japan. It is necessary to convey this properly. If people think that it will be better by digital, they will think that it is not so good, that it is better to have people. I think it is also important to have people understand how serious the labor shortage will be and how much the service will deteriorate in the future, and to have them understand that if we do not introduce digital now, the quality of service will deteriorate in the future. It will become a burden on the people, including the cost, and it will return as a burden on the citizens. If we raise expectations that analog will be more convenient and better, I think that the number of citizens who think analog is better than digital and block it will not decrease. I feel that we need to devise ways to do so.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

We have received many valuable opinions. However, as time is running out, we would like to end our discussion here. I would like the secretariat to proceed with the preparation of the Priority Plan within the remaining time, including the opinions we have just heard.

In addition, if there is anything that needs to be asked of the members, I would like them to do it quickly. I think they gave us a lot of feedback, and they said they would do the dashboard and KPI in a short period of time. At the same time, they also pointed out that as DX progresses, that is, as the digital society progresses, that is, as the work of the Digital Agency progresses, the number of things that the Digital Agency does will increase, and the scope of coverage will increase. In that case, when you mentioned earlier that at least a scale of about 5,000 people is needed, I think we have come to understand where and who is needed in a fairly specific manner. I thought that it would be good if the plan were written by incorporating the roles of Priority Plan and Digital Agency.

I would like to express my gratitude to the members who have always provided us with very valuable opinions, and I hope that the Secretariat will take the members' opinions into consideration as it proceeds with the preparation of the Priority Plan.

That's all for today's agenda. I would like to ask the Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs to make a closing statement. First of all, Mr. Tsuchida, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, please.

H. E. Mr. Tsuchida, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Digital Transformation: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for taking time out of your very busy schedule today. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you. In closing, I would like to make one request to all of you who have a truly strong voice. That is, as Mr. Ohta mentioned, in a sense, the number of staff members, and I would like you to convey to all of you the strengthening of Digital Agency's systems. I would like to ask for your support in this regard. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

You have mentioned many things today, but Digital Agency is not only doing a wide range of things. There are many things that we need to do and would like to do in the future, and there are many areas where the needs of the people are strong. Amidst this, as you mentioned today, for example, the AI, to be honest, the current situation is that we have not been able to allocate personnel to such an extent that you will be surprised. Although private companies can hire and allocate personnel in advance to places where there is apparently strong sales and where there are strong customer needs, we have not yet been able to do so due to the limitations of our budget and capacity. Even so, we have been able to secure approximately twice as many personnel in the two and a half years since Digital Agency was established, which is also unusual for Kasumigaseki. However, we are now close to reaching our limit. All the executives of Digital Agency are working together to strengthen our system and strengthen our personnel, but we are nearing our limit, so I would like to ask for your help, as I mentioned earlier that we have 5,000 personnel, to strengthen the system in Digital Agency more and more, so that we can deliver the digital services necessary to the people of Japan. I would like to thank you for your support today.

Thank you very much for today.

Chairman Murai: .

Mr. Ishikawa, please go ahead.

State Minister for Digital Transformation Ishikawa: Mr. Murai , Chairman of the Committee, and all other members of the Committee, thank you for your valuable opinions from the morning today.

Recently, I also visited Miyakonojo City and saw how convenient the counter digital transformation system is for citizens. I would like to promote administrative efficiency and digitalization in local governments across the country, using Miyakonojo as a model case.

On the other hand, I believe you are right when you point out that the benefits of improving the convenience of digitalization have not yet been fully conveyed to the people. We are also continuing to sell to the private sector. Against this backdrop, the demonstration test of the utilization of the My Number system in scenes of emergencies has entered its second year, and I believe that the fact that My Number Card is also necessary for us and that there are situations where it can be utilized will probably spread to the people. Ahead of the switch to My Number Card as the Health Insurance Certificate in December, the three ministries of Digital Agency, MHLW, and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications plan to intensively conduct public relations activities to publicize and publicize easy-to-understand examples like this. We still have a long way to go in terms of its utilization in disaster prevention areas, but we will steadily complete digitalization for the people one step at a time.

This September will mark three full years since the establishment of Digital Agency. I believe that the fact that we have achieved such results in the five years of intensive efforts is the result of the tireless efforts of Minister Kono and all the staff. I would be grateful if you would continue to provide guidance as a cheering squad.

Thank you very much for today.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

Then, please make the Mr. Kono, Minister for Digital Transformation,.

Mr. Kono, Minister for Digital Transformation,: , thank you very much for your long time and early morning. There has been a lot of talk about human resources in Digital Agency, and they have finally reached less than 1,100 people. The recent registration information and the family register linkage system, which should be closely monitored by Digital Agency, have been entrusted to each ministry under the current system, and increasing the number of digital personnel in the government as a whole may reduce the quality control and necessary budget amount. Regarding digital human resources in the government, I would like to discuss long-term policies for the next fiscal year with Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs and others.

We need to firmly consider what to do with professional human resources, including AI human resources, and we need to firmly consider digital human resources in response to requests from local governments that the national government or prefectural and basic local governments should firmly support digital human resources.

In addition, it is said that administrative procedures are carried out several times a year. I believe that once you complete procedures such as filing tax returns and issuing certificates at convenience stores, you will understand the convenience. However, as people use apps that can be used on a daily basis, I believe it will lead to the convenience of digitalization and My Number Card. The State Minister and Parliamentary Vice-Minister are currently working hard on applications that will allow My Number Card to be used not only for administrative procedures but also for citizen cards and prevention of resale, so I believe it is necessary to firmly promote digital convenience.

Even in the analog format, the Japanese system is convenient to a certain extent, and compared to other countries, the people there tend to be very polite. In this context, when we think about the future population decline, I think we cannot avoid digitalization. We would like to quickly create a situation in which smartphones are installed and other convenience features are enhanced, such as citizen cards that can be used properly, and in case of emergency, if you evacuate with your smartphone, it will be equipped with a My Number Card function. There are still many things that need to be done, but we will do our best. We will firmly reflect the opinions we received today in Priority Plan and move forward again.

Thank you very much.

Chairman Murai: Thank you very much.

Then, please let us know from the office.

Office: The Office will contact you with two matters.

First, today's meeting video and materials will be available on Digital Agency's website.

My second question. Regarding the next planning meeting and beyond, I will consult with Chairman Murai and let you know.

That's all.

Chairman Murai: : Thank you very much.

With that, today's 9th "Digital Society Concept Conference" comes to a close. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule today.

That's all.