[Interview] Ease of use by local government officials is the key to improving administrative services
Table of Contents
- Assigned To
- Aim to reduce the burden on everyone involved in receiving benefits
- Creating an environment in which local government officials can concentrate on their "jobs to do"
- What I had in mind was to resolve all kinds of "negative" such as anxiety and dissatisfaction.
- Create a forum for face-to-face dialogue among all parties involved
- Thoroughly verifying ease of use by involving government officials
- Related Pages
Assigned To
Senior Expert SUMIDA Tomoko
In 2022, private sector personnel participated in the "Municipal Shared SaaS," the predecessor of the benefits support service, and is currently actively participating in projects involving a wide range of stakeholders, including Visit Japan Web.
*Affiliations and job titles are as of April 1, 2025.
Aim to reduce the burden on everyone involved in receiving benefits
- What are the objectives and characteristics of this initiative?
Sumida , Sumida First of all, one of the backgrounds behind the birth of the benefits support service is the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. In the before the corona disaster, benefits were not very frequent, and the application process was done using paper. However, the situation changed completely when the administration of the Special Cash Payments started due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The demand for speeding up the delivery of benefits has led to a situation in which many local governments have to spend a huge amount of time, effort, and cost. Therefore, there was a demand for measures to shorten the time to deliver benefits to residents and reduce the burden on local government employees. In this context, the concept of the benefits support service began. I believe that a major feature of this initiative is that it considers the usability not only of residents, who are the end users of the service, but also of local government employees.
Creating an environment in which local government officials can concentrate on their "jobs to do"
- What role did you play as the project manager?
Sumida local government officials could focus on more essential work. What I tried to be aware of in that process was the workload of local government officials. In private companies, there is a strong motivation to reduce personnel costs for officials, but in administrative organizations, I feel a strong sense of awareness to solve problems by the government officials themselves working hard. However, I think that the original role of local government officials is not to handle procedures, but to deliver administrative services to residents and to be close to those who need support. I conveyed my idea that reducing the workload is necessary to secure that time, so it is necessary to improve efficiency with services such as benefit support services, and I was building a consensus.
What I had in mind was to resolve all kinds of "negative" such as anxiety and dissatisfaction.
- Please tell us what you paid attention to and devised when working with local governments.
Sumida Municipality, I believe that it is most important to resolve concerns and unclear points and build a relationship of trust. Therefore, I answered all the questions I received at the briefing session held for the municipality, even if it took time. In addition, I tried to implement a function that can properly resolve the complaints hidden in the work so that people can feel the usefulness of the service. For example, response to inquiries. In fact, many of the inquiries from residents were "confirming the progress of the application status." To solve this problem, the benefit support service has added a function that allows residents themselves to confirm the status of their application.
Create a forum for face-to-face dialogue among all parties involved
- How did you proceed in gathering the opinions of multiple stakeholders?
Sumida Sumida In a multi-stakeholder project involving multiple government ministries and agencies, it can be difficult to reach a consensus if each stakeholder has different requests. In such cases, I try to gather the stakeholders in the same place as much as possible and create a forum for dialogue, even if it takes time.
By listening to the opinions of the individual rather than listening to them second hand, it is easier to understand each person's situation and to get everyone on the same page. As a result, I believe that consensus building will proceed smoothly and lead to a sense of overall satisfaction.
Thoroughly verifying ease of use by involving government officials
- Is there anything I should be aware of in order to ensure the usability of the service?
Sumida It is a thorough verification, including efforts such as having Digital Agency staff who are not familiar with the specifications operate the system to check for difficult points and defects in behavior. Some people hesitate to comment, saying, "I'm not familiar with the system, so I can't comment," but rather, I think it would be good to ask them to comment on even the smallest things so that we can try it from the same perspective as actual users.
Personally, I would also like to recommend that administrative officials themselves operate it. Because by actually touching it, administrative officials themselves can confirm whether "anyone can use it intuitively" and "whether the procedure can be completed smoothly." Touching the service with the same feeling and situation as the user. It is a basic thing, but I think it is very important.