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Unification and standardization of mission-critical systems for local governments

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Table of Contents

Overview

Background:

Until now, local governments have developed, procured, and managed various information systems of their own originality and ingenuity to provide various services to residents.
However, the following issues have been pointed out as information systems have been customized for each local government, even for tasks that are common to each local government specified by the laws and regulations, etc.

  • Maintenance and management, and modifications at the time of system revision must be handled individually, which imposes a heavy human and financial burden.
  • Adjustment of differences in information systems becomes a burden and cloud use does not proceed smoothly
  • As a result, it is difficult to quickly spread the best measures to improve services for residents nationwide.

Due to the declining birthrate and aging population, Japan's working-age population (15 to 64 years old) is expected to decrease to 52.75 million by 2050. Even in a society with a declining population, it is essential to solve the above issues in order to maintain and strengthen public services with digital power. For this reason, it is important for the national and local governments to cooperate to make the most efficient and effective use of digital technology, instead of about 1,800 local governments individually developing and owning systems.
Based on a report from the 32nd Local Government Systems Research Council, an advisory body to the Prime Minister, the "Act on Standardization of Information Systems for Local Governments" (Standardization Act) (e-Gov laws and regulations Searches) (hereinafter referred to as the "Standardization Act") was passed and enforced in 2021 (2021).

In this law, from the perspective of commonality in the content of administrative processing in local governments, improvement in the convenience of residents, and efficiency in the operation of local governments, the administrative work subject to standardization (administrative work subject to standardization, currently 20 administrative works) is specified, and the information systems used by local governments for processing these administrative works are required to conform to the standards for standardization specified by the relevant ministries (hereinafter referred to as "standardization standards") (hereinafter referred to as "standard compliance system").
This is aimed at reducing the human and financial burden on local governments in the future so that local government officials can focus on providing direct services to residents and formulating plans based on local circumstances, as well as building a digitalization infrastructure to spread online applications nationwide.
In addition, in light of the urgent need to promote digitalization in society as a whole based on the experience of responding to the novel coronavirus infection, local governments will aim to make a smooth and safe transition to standard compliance system by fiscal year 2025 (fiscal year 2025) as a general rule.

Promotion Framework and Roles of Digital Agency

Based on the Standardization Act, the national government specifies 20 administrative affairs subject to standardization, and the "Basic Guidelines for the Standardization of Information Systems by Local Governments in Basic Policy for Standardization of Information Systems.

Digital Agency has taken the lead in formulating the basic policies and, as the control tower for the ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over the systems, is working to promote the measures efficiently and effectively. At the same time, has provided the ministries and agencies with jurisdiction over the systems with on standardization work policies, etc. (points to consider, work flows, how to establish standards, and horizontal adjustment policies), and is supporting the further improvement of standard specifications.

Based on the work policies indicated by Digital Agency, each ministry and agency with jurisdiction over the administrative affairs subject to standardization is to establish standard specifications that include the contents to be specified by the standardization standards related to the administrative affairs under their jurisdiction. In addition, Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications are to establish standards for common matters such as data linkage and cybersecurity. (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications's initiatives are major initiatives as toward standardization and commonality of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Local Government Information Systems (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) (PDF format) Please check it from .)
In particular, in Digital Agency, we have prepared the following common items.

  1. Standards for data and linkage requirements
  2. Standardization of non function requirements common to each standard compliance system
  3. Standardization of common function (application management function, integrated address function within the organization, etc.)

Under the Standardization Act, local governments are required to make efforts to use nationwide cloud environments developed by the national government ( Government Cloud ). Digital Agency procures the Government Cloud 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 the Standardization Liaison Office and the Business Council for the Promotion of Unification and Standardization of Core Business Systems. In addition, we are working with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and prefectural governments to support the transition to standardization of local governments. For details, please check the Transition Support .
In addition, TMG is working with Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which has jurisdiction over the area, to monitor the status of local governments and provide financial support * for the costs required to shift to standard compliance system status.

Reference

Basic Policy for Standardization of Information Systems
Support of Ministries and Agencies with Jurisdiction over

Vision through standardization of local government systems

Initiatives to unify and standardize mission-critical systems for local governments aim to reduce the human and financial burden on local governments, enable them to focus on improved services for residents that matches local conditions, and enable the rapid development of new services.

The objectives of the basic policy are as follows.

  1. To develop the infrastructure for digitalization in local governments by establishing or changing standardization standards based on business process reengineering (BPR) based on the three digital principles and business flow premised on digital processing by the competent government agency.
    • Three Digital Principles
      • Digital first (Individual procedures and services are completed digitally from beginning to end)
      • Once only (once submitted information does not need to be submitted twice)
      • Connected one-stop (Realize multiple procedures and services in one-stop, including private-sector services)
  2. To avoid vendor lock-in and ensure competition among multiple operators at the application level by standardizing specifications, such as function requirements, and by conforming to standardization standards related to data requirements and linkage requirements.
  3. When it is necessary to modify a standard compliance system due to a system revision or an emergency response to unexpected administrative demands, the national government should formulate or change the standardization standards to reduce the burden on local governments to respond individually, minimize the scope of the modification, and enable prompt modification.
  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 the Government Cloud.
  5. Provided is a highly economical government cloud service while ensuring a high level of security.
  6. Businesses, including startups and local businesses, should be given the opportunity to deploy their own developed systems nationwide without having to develop their own cloud infrastructure.
  7. The national government shall aim to reduce the operating costs of information systems related to office work subject to standardization by at least 30% compared to FY2018 after the completion of the transition to standard compliance system. The national government shall develop environments for achieving this goal by taking measures to optimize the operating costs of all work, including BPR based on the three digital principles.
  8. When implementing measures that newly use data from the core business systems of local governments, the national government or local governments should build applications that can handle standardized data capture on the Government Cloud in advance. This will make it possible to smoothly capture data from core business systems, which used to be costly in terms of both time and money, and contribute to the prompt launch of services for citizens.

In order to realize these goals, standard compliance system will develop the infrastructure so that all local governments that use core business systems will be able to smoothly and safely transition to Digital Agency built on the Government Cloud by fiscal 2025 (fiscal 2025).
In the run-up to fiscal 2025 (fiscal 2025), we will carefully assess through local governments and business operators the impact of regulatory changes on the transition work, and actively support the smooth and safe transition of the core business system to standard compliance system.

Current status of standard compliance system

Office work subject to standardization and standard specification formulation

At present, the following 20 types of office work are designated by government ordinance as subject to standardization.

  • Child allowance
  • Support for children and child-raising
  • Basic Resident Register
  • Supplementary Family Register
  • Seal Impression Registration
  • Management of the electoral register
  • Fixed property tax
  • Individual inhabitant tax
  • Corporation inhabitants tax
  • Light motor vehicle tax
  • Family register
  • School attendance
  • Health care
  • Child rearing allowance
  • Public Assistance
  • Welfare for persons with disabilities
  • Long-term
  • National health insurance
  • Medical care for the elderly
  • National pension

By the end of FY 2022 (FY 2022), each ministry and agency with jurisdiction over the system had formulated standard specifications for the administrative work subject to standardization described above.

Standard compliance system standard specifications

Interim Measures of Partial function for Systems with Standardized Specifications

In order to promote a smooth and safe transition, there is an interim measure that enables implementation, etc. after the transition for a part of the function on the premise that the transition from the current system to the system compatible with the standard specifications is completed.

Progress

The status of each local public body is reported by each local public body using the standardization PMO tool established by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and is posted on the Standardization and Sharing of Local Government Information Systems (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications) .

Measures to be taken if the shift to standard compliance system is forced to occur in or after fiscal 2026

For the following reasons, systems that must be transferred after fiscal 2026 are called "Specified Transfer Support Systems *".

  • Current systems run on mainframes
  • The current system is operated by an individual development system that is not a package system.
  • Systems for which the current operator will not develop standard compliance system and for which there is no prospect of procuring alternative systems
  • Those that are affected by delays in development or transition work due to resource shortages of business operators, etc.

Digital Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the ministries and agencies responsible for the system will set a deadline for the completion of the required transition in the ordinance of the competent ministry that establishes the standardization standards, based on the status of the system and the transition schedule ascertained from 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 migration difficult system was revised to the specified migration support system.

Status of the Specified Transition Support System and Responses

In October 2023, TMG conducted a survey of all organizations to identify systems that are difficult to transfer to standard compliance system. In March 2024, TMG published the results of the survey. Since then, TMG has continued to conduct surveys, including interviews with organizations in Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that have applied for systems that would have to be transferred to Wi-Fi after fiscal 2026, and has closely examined the results.
As a result, as of the end of December 2025, 8,956 systems (25.9%) out of a total of 34,592 systems subject to standardization are expected to fall under the category of specified transition support systems, and 935 organizations (52.3%) out of 1,788 organizations have at least one specified transition support system.

We plan to continue the survey and ask each organization to submit a questionnaire as soon as there is a change in the transition status schedule. If necessary, we will conduct interviews in Digital Agency and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
In addition, among the local governments that have the Specified Migration Support System, if the current system provider has withdrawn or has not yet been selected as the next provider, we will provide information on the provider as a follow-up so that the local governments can use it as a reference when selecting the next provider.

  • In Digital Agency, through the Business Council, business operators' acceptance of local governments with specific transition support systems will be confirmed, and if possible, conditions for considering their acceptance will be collected through a questionnaire survey.
  • Provision of collected information to local governments as reference information when selecting the next business operator

Efforts to Develop Common Matters

Moving to the Government Cloud

In order to maintain high-quality public services and respond flexibly to the diversifying needs of citizens in the midst of a rapidly declining population with a declining birthrate and aging population, it is important to promote the standardization of the digital infrastructure between the national and local governments. We are working to standardize the core operations of local governments and migrate local government information systems to the Government Cloud.

By moving to the Government Cloud, you will be able to benefit from:

  • Enhancement of the security level of local government information systems as a whole
  • Enabling Large-Scale disaster response (Disaster Recovery)
  • To improve the efficiency of administrative work previously required by the system
  • Rapid provision of administrative services in emergency situations
  • Flexible response to system development

Some local governments have already been optimized by sharing systems, etc., and are expected to face increased costs due to the transition to the Government Cloud, even if they take measures to reduce running costs. For such local governments, even if they do not immediately migrate to the Government Cloud, we plan to support them to consider migrating to the Government Cloud when they add equipment to their current infrastructure or update their systems in the future, so that they can enjoy the benefits of using the Government Cloud.

Validation for Migration to the Government Cloud

Government Cloud Advanced Project Initiatives

Since fiscal 2021, we have been verifying issues related to the transition to the Government Cloud, which is being developed by Digital Agency, so that everyone in municipalities can use standard compliance system with peace of mind.
The verification conducted in the preceding project is being continued as part of the fiscal 2024 Government Cloud Early Transition Organization Verification Project.
For more information on this initiative, please refer to of the .

, an initiative of the

In order to verify issues related to the transition to the Government Cloud developed by Digital Agency and the operation of systems on the Government Cloud, we made a public call for the Early Transition Organization Verification Project.
For more information on this initiative, please refer to , an initiative of the .

Government Cloud's vendor verification project initiatives in

In order to further promote the use of the Government Cloud by local governments, we conducted a public call for vendors who will actively participate in initiatives such as the accumulation of know-how for efficient operation of shared usage methods and inter-system coordination in the Government Cloud and the verification of inter-system coordination for multi-vendors.
For more information on this initiative, please refer to Government Cloud's vendor verification project initiatives in .

Materials for Utilizing Government Cloud

Development of a common function 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 in charge of the systems have formulated standard specifications that specify function requirements for each of the 20 services subject to standardization. In Digital Agency, the " Common function Standard Specifications " and the " Data Requirements and Linkage Requirements Standard Specifications " have been formulated for these common items. They reflect the results of the Study Group on Technical Requirements for Common function, etc., held in Digital Agency in the latter half of fiscal 2022.
In addition, the concept of data requirements and linkage requirements in standardization is summarized in on the correspondence of data requirements and linkage requirements in the standardization of local government information systems (PDF / 880 kb).

Based on these standard specifications, etc., specific work has been carried out since fiscal 2023 for the development of standard compliance system by business operators and the introduction by local governments. As we proceed with the work, while there are opinions calling for further elaboration of the data requirements, linkage requirements, standard specifications, etc., there are also opinions calling for careful consideration because there is a possibility of rework at this stage of development.

Based on these opinions, Digital Agency newly established the Common function Issues Study Group to grasp the development status of the Common function and other issues related to the transition, and to examine measures to realize a smooth and safe transition.
Assuming that standard compliance system is moving from the development stage to the introduction and operation stage, the Study Group decided to create references (recommended guidelines), provide a list of main items to be checked, and share precedents so that coordination between local governments and business operators will proceed smoothly in the operation phase.
In the future, we will work to quickly disclose the information that has been sorted out through the Common function Issues Review Meeting, and to ensure smooth coordination among the parties concerned.

The standard specifications for data requirements and linkage requirements can be found on the following page.

Local Public Body Information System from

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 cooperation between systems. For details, please check the character standardization in the Local Public Body Information System from .

Standardization of non function requirements common to each standard compliance system

In the "Standards for Non function Requirements for Local Government Information Systems", the following items are based on the "Selection Level" of items that are considered to be necessary in the "Non function Requirement Grade (Local Government Version) Usage Guide (PDF format)" , and have been revised and added in consideration of the latest situation.

  • Of the requirement grades listed in the business and system classification "Group II", those for which the handling at the time of cloud procurement is "○: Items that may be subject to cloud"
  • In particular, requirements other than the following function requirements for mission-critical operational systems shall be specified.
    • Availability
    • Performance and expandability
    • Operation and maintainability
    • Transferability
    • Security
    • System Environment and Ecology

In light of the opinion that the requirements are excessive compared to the nature of individual business and the size of the local government, which was obtained during the Government Cloud Early Migration Organization Verification Project and the transition to standard compliance system, after discussion at the Study Group on Common Standards for Local Government Information Systems, the level of the items that can be varied according to the size of the local government, the nature of the business, and the risk acceptance policies was revised so that local governments can select the level at their own discretion, and the Standard of Non function Requirements for Local Government Information Systems [Version 1.2] was formulated.

  • Standard for Non function Requirements for Local Government Information Systems [Version 1.2] (September 2025): Main body ( PDF (1,757 kb) , Excel (201 kb) ) and Overview (PDF / 2,177 kb)
  • (Material before revision) Standard of Non-Local Government Information System Requirements [Version 1.1] (August 2022): function main body (PDF / 715 kb) Overview of and (PDF / 1,318 kb)
  • (Material before revision) Standards for Non-Local Government Information Systems Requirements [Version 1.0] (September 2020): function (PDF / 496 kb) Overview of and (PDF / 1,318 kb)

Standardization of common function (application management function, integrated address function within the organization, etc.)

The common function in standard compliance system can be broadly classified into the following three function groups.

  1. System common function group: A standard compliance system group for realizing function requirements common to multiple standard compliance system among the function necessary for the function.
  2. "Integrated Operation Management function Group" refers to, among the regions required for a standard compliance system, a function group for implementing non function requirements such as operation monitoring, job management, backup / recovery, data encryption, anti-virus, automatic deployment, and cost-optimization support. function
  3. Infrastructure function group: Among the function necessary for a standard compliance system, a group of function for realizing infrastructure requirements such as compute, storage, and database.

"Among" "1. System Common function Group," "the function that can be provided in a loosely coupled manner with the core business system is subject to the standard specifications of the common function because it may be provided by a business operator different from the business operator providing the core business system. Other function are outside the scope of the standard specifications because it is considered more efficient to be provided by the same business operator as the business operator providing the core business system, considering the linkage with the business and the feasibility of standardization."
In addition, "2. Integrated Operation and Management function Groups" and "3. Infrastructure function Groups" are not included in the scope of this standard because they may involve the use of Government Cloud.

The standard specifications of the Common function can be found on the following page.

Transition Support

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

* 1 Standardization Liaison
A support system established by officials dispatched from each prefecture in order to provide technical support to local governments in the area of unification and standardization by confirming their progress and identifying issues
* 2 Business Council for the Promotion of Integration and Standardization of Core 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 Establishment of Standard Specifications for Office Work Subject to Standardization

Review meetings are held to examine and prepare standard specifications for 20 major operations of local governments, such as resident records, local taxes, and long-term care and welfare services, in cooperation with local governments, related organizations, and businesses in the government agency responsible for the system.

Management policy for standard specifications, etc.

Comprehensive measures related to operation costs after the standardization of local government information systems and the transition to the Government Cloud

On June 13, 2025, the working team of the Liaison Council for the Promotion of National and Local Digital Common Infrastructure in Digital Agency conducted a study while listening to the opinions of local governments, and compiled comprehensive measures related to the operation costs after the standardization of local government information systems and the transition to the Government Cloud.

Reference