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Unification and standardization of core business systems of local governments

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Contents

Overview

Background

In order to provide various services to residents, local governments have developed, procured, and managed various information systems on their own initiative.
However, the following problems have been pointed out due to the customization of information systems in each local government, even in the case of services that are common to each local government specified in laws and ordinances, etc.

  • Personnel and financial burdens are heavy due to the need to take individual measures for maintenance, management, and renovation when the system is revised.
  • Adjustment of differences in information systems becomes a burden, and cloud utilization does not proceed smoothly
  • As a result, it is difficult to promptly spread the optimal measures to improve services for residents nationwide.

Due to the low birthrate and aging population, Japan's working-age population (15 to 64 years old) is expected to decrease to 52.75 million by 2050. In order to maintain and strengthen public services with digital power even in a society with a declining population, it is essential to solve the above issues. Therefore, it is important for the central and local governments to cooperate to make the most efficient and effective use of digital technology, rather than having about 1,800 local governments individually develop and own systems.
Based on the report of the 32nd Local Systems Research Council, an advisory body to the Prime Minister, the "Act on Standardization of Local Public Entities' Information Systems" (Standardization Act) (e-Gov laws and ordinances Retrieval) (hereinafter referred to as the "Standardization Act") of was established and enforced in 2021. 2021

This law specifies the administrative functions to be standardized (currently 20 administrative functions subject to standardization) from the viewpoint of the commonality of administrative processing, the improvement of convenience for residents, and the improvement of efficiency in local government administration. The law also stipulates that the information systems used by local governments in the processing of these administrative functions must conform to the standards for standardization (hereinafter referred to as the "Standardization Standards") specified by ministerial ordinances of the relevant ministries (hereinafter referred to as the "standard compliance system").
This aims to reduce the human and financial burden on local governments in the future, enabling local government officials to focus on the provision of direct services to residents and planning work based on local circumstances, and to build a foundation for the digitalisation to spread online applications nationwide.
In addition, based on the experience of the response to the novel coronavirus infection, the promotion of digitalisation for society as a whole was regarded as an urgent need. In light of this, local governments are, as a general rule, aiming for a smooth and safe transition to standard compliance system by fiscal year 2025 (2025).

Promotion Framework and Roles of Digital Agency

Based on the Standardization Act, the national government has established 20 offices subject to standardization, as well as the "Basic Policy for Standardization of Local Government Information" (hereinafter referred to as the "Basic Policies"), which were approved by the Cabinet.

Digital Agency takes the initiative in formulating the basic policies and works to promote the measures efficiently and effectively as the control center of the ministries and agencies in charge of the respective systems. At the same time, provides the ministries and agencies in charge of the systems with a for standardization work policies, etc. (points to be considered, work flow, how to establish standards, policies for alignment and coordination), and supports the further improvement of standard specifications.

The ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over the administrative affairs subject to standardization are to establish standard specifications incorporating the contents of the standardization standards related to the administrative affairs under their jurisdiction based on the work policies, etc. indicated by Digital Agency. In addition, Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications are to establish standards for common items such as data linkage and cybersecurity. (For information on Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications's initiatives, please refer to 's Main Initiatives for Standardization and Standardization of Local Government Information Systems (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) (PDF format) .) Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
In particular, Digital Agency has developed the following common items:

  1. Standards for data and linkage requirements
  2. Standards for non-functional requirements common to each standard compliance system
  3. Standards for common functions (application management function, intra-group unified address function, etc.)

Under the Standardization Act, local governments are required to make efforts to use nationwide cloud environments developed by the national government ( Government Cloud ). The Government Cloud is procured by Digital Agency and provides its services to local governments. By using the Government Cloud, local governments can easily enjoy the benefits of cost reduction through shared use, rapid construction and flexible expansion of information systems, security measures, and operation monitoring.

To support the transition to standard compliance system, Digital Agency has established a "Standardization Liaison" and a "Business Council to Promote the Unification and Standardization of Mission-critical Business Systems." In addition, in cooperation with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and prefectural governments, we are supporting the transition to standardization of local governments. For details, please check the Transition Support .
In addition, we are working with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which has jurisdiction over local governments, to monitor the progress of local governments and provide financial support * for the costs required for the transition to standard compliance system.

* Environmental Improvement for Standardization and Standardization of Municipal Information Systems (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) (PDF format)

Reference

Basic Policy for Standardization of Local Government Information
Support from the competent ministries

Vision of Local Government System Standardization

Efforts to unify and standardize the core business systems of local governments aim to reduce the human and financial burden on local governments, enable them to focus on improved services for residents that meets local conditions, and enable the rapid deployment of new services.

The objectives of the basic policy are as follows.

  1. To develop the foundation of digitalisation in local governments by establishing or changing standardization standards based on the work flow premised on business process reform (BPR) and digital processing based on the three digital principles by ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over systems.
    • Three Digital Principles
      • Digital-first (individual procedures and services are completed in a consistent digital format)
      • Once only (Once submitted information does not need to be submitted twice)
      • Connected and one stop (to realize multiple procedures and services in one stop, including private services)
  2. Avoid vendor lock-in and ensure a competitive environment for multiple operators at the application level by standardizing specifications such as functional requirements and conforming to standardization standards for data requirements and linkage requirements.
  3. When it is necessary to renovate a standard compliance system for the purpose of institutional revision or emergency response to sudden administrative demands, the national government shall formulate or revise standardization standards to reduce the burden on local governments to respond individually, minimize the scope of said renovation, and enable swift renovation.
  4. To enable local governments to reduce the burden of maintaining and managing hardware, such as servers, and software, such as operating systems, middleware, and applications, by utilizing government clouds.
  5. To provide highly economical government cloud services while ensuring a high level of security.
  6. Enable businesses, including start-ups and local businesses, to have the opportunity to deploy their developed systems nationwide without having to build their own cloud infrastructure.
  7. After completing the transition to standard compliance system, the Government will aim to reduce the operating costs of information systems related to work subject to standardization by at least 30% compared to FY 2018. The Government will develop an environment for realizing this goal by taking measures to optimize the operating costs of the entire work including BPR based on the Three Digital Principles.
  8. When the national government or local governments take new measures utilizing the data of local governments' core business systems, the national government or local governments should build in advance an application on the Government Cloud that supports the import of standardized data. This will make it possible to smoothly import data from core business systems, which has been costly in terms of both time and cost, and contribute to the prompt launch of services for the public.

In order to achieve these goals, standard compliance system will develop environments that will enable all local governments using mission-critical systems to smoothly and safely migrate to Digital Agency built on the government cloud by fiscal 2025 (fiscal 2025).
In doing so, toward fiscal 2025 (fiscal 2025), we will carefully assess the impact of regulatory revisions on the migration process through local governments and business operators, and actively support the smooth and safe migration of core business systems to standard compliance system.

Current Status of standard compliance system

Standardization work and standard specification formulation

At present, the following 20 administrative functions are designated by government ordinances as administrative functions subject to standardization.

  • Child allowance
  • Support for children and child-rearing
  • Basic resident register
  • Supplementary Family Register
  • Seal impression registration
  • Electoral Roll Management
  • Property tax
  • Individual inhabitant tax
  • Corporation inhabitants tax
  • Light motor vehicle tax
  • Family register
  • School attendance
  • Health care
  • Child support allowance
  • Public assistance
  • Welfare for the disabled
  • Long-term care
  • National health insurance
  • Medical care for the elderly
  • National pension

By the end of FY 2022 (2022), the ministries and agencies in charge of each system had formulated standard specifications for the above-mentioned standardized office work.

Standard compliance system standard specifications

Transitional Measures for Some Functions of Systems Corresponding to Standard Specifications

In order to promote smooth and safe migration, there is a transitional measure to enable implementation, etc. of some functions after migration on the assumption that the migration from the current system to the system corresponding to the standard specifications is completed.

Progress

The progress of each local public body is reported by each local public body in the standardized PMO tool established by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and is published in the Standardization and Standardization of Local Public Body Information Systems (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) .

Measures to be taken in the event that it becomes apparent that the shift to standard compliance system will inevitably take place in fiscal 2026 (fiscal 2026) or later

The "Specified Transition Support System *" refers to a system for which the transition to FY 2026 (FY 2026) or later is unavoidable for the following reasons.

  • Current systems run on mainframes
  • The current system is operated by an individual development system that is not a package system.
  • A system for which the current operator has decided not to develop the standard compliance system and for which there is no prospect of procurement of an alternative system
  • Projects that are affected by delays in development or migration work due to a shortage of business resources

Digital Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over the Special Transition Support System will set the required deadline for the completion of the transition in the ministerial ordinance establishing the standardization standards, based on the status of the system and the transition schedule obtained from the local governments, and will actively support the transition to standard compliance system within approximately five years.

*In the Basic Policy for the Standardization of Local Government Information Systems (approved by the Cabinet on December 24, 2024), the conventional difficult-to-migrate system was changed to the Specific Migration Support System.

Status of Specific Transition Support Systems and Responses

In October 2023, we conducted a survey of all organizations regarding the status of systems that are difficult to migrate, and in March 2024, we published the results of the survey. We continued the survey after that, and conducted hearings with organizations in Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that had submitted systems for which the migration to standard compliance system would inevitably take place in fiscal 2026 (fiscal 2026) or later, and then scrutinized the results.
As a result, it was found that 3,279 systems (9.5%) out of a total of 34,592 systems subject to standardization are expected to fall under the specified migration support systems as of the end of April 2025. In terms of the number of organizations, 607 organizations (33.9%) out of 1,788 organizations have the specified migration support systems.
We will continue to conduct surveys in the future. As soon as there is a change in the transition status schedule, we will ask each organization to submit a questionnaire. If necessary, we will hold hearings in Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

In addition, as a follow-up to local governments that have a Specified Transition Support System and have not yet selected a next generation business operator due to the withdrawal of the current system provider, we will provide information on business operators to help local governments select the next generation business operator.

  • In Digital Agency, through the Business Council, confirm whether or not businesses can respond to local governments that have a specified transition support system, and if possible, collect information on the conditions for considering acceptance through a questionnaire survey.
  • Provide local governments with information collected as reference information when selecting next-generation businesses

Efforts to Develop Common Items

Moving to the Government Cloud

In order to maintain high-quality public services and flexibly respond to the diversifying needs of the people in a rapidly aging society with a declining birthrate, it is important to promote the sharing of digital infrastructure between the national and local governments. In addition to standardizing the core operations of local governments, we are working to migrate local government information systems to the government cloud.

By moving to a government cloud, you will be able to enjoy the following benefits:

  • Upgrading the overall security level of local government information systems
  • Enabling Massive disaster response (Disaster Recovery)
  • Improving the efficiency of clerical work that used to occur in conventional systems
  • Provision of prompt administrative services in emergency situations
  • Flexible response to system development

Some local governments have already been optimized through system collaboration, etc., and even if measures are taken to reduce running costs, costs are expected to increase as a result of the transition to the government cloud. For such local governments, even if they do not immediately transition to the government cloud, we plan to support them in considering the transition to the government cloud again when they add equipment to their current infrastructure or update their systems in the future, and promote the utilization of the government cloud so that they can enjoy the benefits of the government cloud.

Validation for Migration to Government Cloud

Government Cloud Initiatives

Using the government cloud developed by Digital Agency, we have been examining issues related to the transition to the government cloud since fiscal 2021 so that everyone in municipalities can use standard compliance system with peace of mind.
The verification that had been carried out in the preceding project was included in the verification project of the Government Cloud Early Migration Organization in fiscal 2024.
For details, please refer to of the .

Government Cloud Early Transition Organization Verification Project

In order to verify the transition to the Government Cloud developed by Digital Agency and the issues related to the system operation on the Government Cloud, we publicly invited applications for the Early Transition Organization Verification Project.
For details, please refer to Government Cloud Early Transition Organization Verification Project .

Government Cloud's Initiatives for Vendor Verification Project

In order to further promote the use of Government Cloud by local governments, we invited vendors to actively participate in initiatives such as accumulating know-how on efficient operation of shared usage methods and inter-system collaboration in Government Cloud, and verifying inter-system collaboration in multi-vendors.
For details, please refer to Government Cloud's Initiatives for Vendor Verification Project .

Materials for Government Cloud Utilization

Development of Common Functions and Responses to Individual Issues

Standards for data and linkage requirements

With the aim of unifying and standardizing information systems for local governments, the ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over the systems have formulated standard specifications that specify functional requirements for each of the 20 tasks to be standardized. Digital Agency has also formulated the " Common Functional Standard Specifications " and the " Data Requirements and Linkage Requirements Standard Specifications ," reflecting the results of the Common Functional Technical Requirements Study Meeting held in Digital Agency in the latter half of fiscal 2022.
In addition, regarding the concept of data requirements and linkage requirements in standardization, the correspondence of data requirements and linkage requirements in standardization of local government information systems in is summarized in (PDF / 880 kb).

Based on these standard specifications, etc., since fiscal 2023, concrete work has been carried out for the development of standard compliance system by business operators and the introduction by local governments. In the course of the work, some have requested further elaboration of data requirements, linkage requirements standard specifications, etc., while others have requested careful consideration as there may be rework at the current stage when the development has progressed.

Based on these opinions, Digital Agency established the Common Function and Other Issues Study Group to grasp the development status of common functions and other issues related to migration and to consider measures to realize smooth and safe migration.
Based on the premise that standard compliance system is moving from the development stage to the introduction and operation stage, the Study Group decided to prepare references (recommended guidelines), provide a list of main items to be checked, and share prior examples, in order to facilitate smooth coordination between local governments and operators in terms of operation.
In the future, we will work to ensure smooth coordination among related parties by promptly disclosing the items that have been sorted out through the Committee on Issues such as Common Functions.

The standard specifications for data requirements and linkage requirements are listed on the following pages.
Standard Specifications for Data Requirements and Linkage Requirements

Local Public Entity Information Systems"

We are promoting the standardization of characters. In this process, we aim to improve the efficiency and improved services for residents of administrative work by standardizing external characters and facilitating data management and information coordination between systems. For details, please refer to "Character Standardization in Local Public Entity Information Systems" .

Standards for non-functional requirements common to each standard compliance system

The standards for non-functional requirements have been revised and added based on the "selection level" of items considered to be necessary, mainly the following items, in the of the "Non-Functional Requirements Grade (Local Governments Version) Usage Guide (PDF format)", in consideration of the latest situation, etc.

  • Among the request grades shown as "Group ②" in the classification of operations and systems, items that are handled as "○: Items that can be subject to cloud" at the time of cloud procurement
  • Specifically, requirements other than the following functional requirements are stipulated in the line-of-business system.
    • Availability
    • Performance and expandability
    • Operation and maintainability
    • Transferability
    • Security
    • System environment and ecology

In addition, in the Government Cloud upfront project, we are verifying whether the core business system built on the government cloud can satisfy the current standards of non-functional requirements. In the verification process to date, we are reviewing the requirements based on the following opinions from the organizations and businesses participating in the upfront project.

  • Points where there were doubts about the interpretation of the requirements when planning the verification of each requirement
  • Points for which selection levels and conditions should be changed based on the characteristics of the government cloud

In addition, in light of the status of consideration of the revision of guidelines on information security policies by local governments, we have reviewed the selection level, etc., and have taken into account the questions and opinions received from local governments, etc. in the opinion inquiry.

Standards for common functions (application management function, intra-group unified address function, etc.)

Common functions in standard compliance system can be broadly classified into the following three functional groups.

  1. System common functional group: Among the functions required for a standard compliance system, a functional group to realize the functional requirements common to multiple standard compliance system.
  2. Integrated operation management function group: Of the functions required for standard compliance system, a function group for realizing non-functional requirements such as operation monitoring, job management, backup and recovery, data encryption, antivirus, automatic deployment, and cost optimization support.
  3. Infrastructure functional group: Among the functions necessary for standard compliance system, a functional group for realizing infrastructure requirements such as compute, storage, database, etc.

"Among" "1. System Common Function Group," "functions that are considered to be able to be provided in a loosely coupled manner with the mission-critical business system are subject to the standard specifications for common functions because they may be provided by a business operator different from the business operator providing the mission-critical business system. Other functions are not subject to the standard specifications because it is considered more efficient for them to be provided by the same business operator as the business operator providing the mission-critical business system in consideration of the connection with the business and the feasibility of standardization."
In addition, "2. Integrated Operation Management Function Group" and "3. Infrastructure Function Group" are excluded from the scope of this standard because they are considered to be the utilization of government cloud.

The standard specifications for common functions are listed on the following pages.

Transition Support

In Digital Agency, we established a Standardization Liaison * 1 and a Business Council for the Promotion of Unification and Standardization of Mission-Critical Business Systems * 2. In addition, we are working with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and prefectural governments to support local governments in the transition to standardization.

  • Target businesses: Businesses that develop, sell, or introduce existing systems related to standard compliance system or the 20 services subject to standardization
  • Businesses that wish to participate in this Council should contact us from the Application Form for Participation in the Business Council for the Promotion of Unification and Standardization of Core Business Systems .
* 1 Standardization Liaison
A support system established by dispatched personnel from each prefecture to provide technical support through the confirmation of the progress of each local government in unification and standardization and the identification of issues
* 2 Business Council for Promotion of Unification and Standardization of Mission-critical Business Systems
Council established to grasp the development status of the standard compliance system and issues related to the transition, and to discuss measures to realize a smooth and safe transition to the standard compliance system

Reference

Meetings, etc.

Study Group on the Formulation of Standard Specifications for Standardized Office Work

With regard to 20 major tasks of local governments, such as resident records, local taxes, nursing care, and welfare, the ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over the system hold study meetings with local governments, related organizations, and businesses to study them and create standard specifications.

Management policy for standard specifications

Standardization of Local Government Information Systems and Comprehensive Measures for Operating Expenses after Migration to Government Cloud

In Digital Agency, the working team of the Liaison Council for the Promotion of Common Digital Infrastructure between the Central and Local Governments and others conducted a study while listening to the opinions of local governments and others, and on June 13, 2025, they compiled comprehensive measures related to the standardization of local government information systems and operation expenses after the transition to the government cloud.

Reference