Japan’s efforts to drag its public services into the digital age are getting some financial heft behind them.
The government’s Digital Agency, established last September, looks set to have ¥472 billion to spend in the upcoming fiscal year, starting in April. Its budget priorities are heavy on technological upgrades: Promoting My Number ID cards (¥102.7 billion), subsidizing new industrial infrastructure (¥2.2 billion) and accelerating research into next-generation semiconductors (¥14.8 billion) and post-5G telecom networks (¥10 billion).
Yet achieving a digital transformation of government requires more than just new technology. Laws and regulations need to change, too. According to some estimates, as many as 60,000 national and local rules need to be revised to make online public services possible. That's a daunting task, especially in a country whose legislative wheels turn as slowly as Japan’s.
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