Deterioration of bureaucrats?

Successive bill mistakes June 7, 19:42

Bill mistakes that have been revealed one after another in the Diet.

Mistakes were found in more than one-third of the submitted bills.

Why do mistakes occur so often?

I interviewed the actual situation of bill making to find out the reason.

(Kasumigaseki's real interview group: Sachiyo Sugita, reporter of the Social Affairs Department)

Severe criticism from parliamentarians

The trigger was the board of directors of the House of Representatives Steering Committee on March 9.

As many as 45 mistakes were found in the materials related to the digital reform-related bill centered on the establishment of the Digital Agency.

A re-inspection was carried out at the direction of the Prime Minister, and mistakes were revealed one after another in other bills.

Not only the opposition party but also the ruling party criticized one after another.

Constitutional Democratic Party, Azumi Diet Affairs Committee Chairman

"unprecedented Miss of this only. Do not deserve deliberation,"

Liberal Democratic Party Sato Affairs chairman

, "no choice but to say that it would be that slack a little,"

New Komeito Yamaguchi representative

"extremely grave"

There were also harsh voices saying that the bureaucracy was deteriorating.

Mostly simple mistakes ...

As a result of the re-inspection, mistakes were found in 74 bills and the text of 25 of the treaties.

The number was 181 places, which was an unprecedented number.

What kind of mistake is it?

《Ministry of Defense Establishment Law Amendment Bill Submitted by the Ministry of Defense》

(Error) “British Army Facilities in

Canada

”

(Correct) “Canada Army Facilities in Canada”

《Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act Amendment Bill Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Submission >>

(wrong) "Amount approved by the competent minister w, ... can be allocated"

(Correct) "Amount approved by the competent minister

can be allocated ...

" <<

Submission of the Digital Agency-related bill by the Cabinet Secretariat >>

(Error) "Cabinet Secretariat"

(Correct) "Commissioner of the Japan Coast Guard"

There were some big mistakes such as missing a part of the sentence, but most of them were simple mistakes such as not doing "indent" to lower the characters of the line break.

I felt like I should fix it on the spot, but I was wondering why I couldn't find it.

"Isn't there a lot of people involved in making the bill?"

Is the mistake due to Corona?

I started to interview the bureaucrats who are the parties concerned, without being disappointed.

"It was a messy way of working,"

said Mr. A, who was entrusted with making the bill as a member of a team of four young people in their 20s and 30s.

He was supposed to take on the "flower-shaped work" and was full of motivation and a sense of mission.

Normally, it is a full-time work to create a bill, but this time it will be done in parallel with measures against the new coronavirus.

The team was launched last October.

The deadline for submitting the bill is early February.

To my question, "Isn't there enough time in four months?", Mr. A quietly shook his head and presented a stack of paper on his desk.

Mr. A

"This is the manuscript of the bill in the early days."

The page is filled with red lines to make corrections, and I don't know what's written anymore.

In general, bill manuscripts are subject to strict checks.

The Cabinet Legislation Bureau awaits you.

It is, so to speak, a "guardian of the law" who examines whether the submitted bill is inconsistent with the existing related laws and regulations.

Furthermore, the contents are often forced to change due to the opinions of executives and politicians in the ministry.

If that happens, the discussions and work that have been accumulated up to that point will be redone.

It was late December that Mr. A's team was able to solidify the contents of the bill and start creating materials in earnest.

There was only about a month left until the deadline.

Around that time, the infection of the new coronavirus spread as if to catch up.

A second state of emergency will be declared at the beginning of the year.

All the teams were rushed to respond, and they couldn't afford to concentrate on drafting the bill, so they went to work on holidays.

I was told about the schedule for one day.

8:00 Team set Print materials such as manuscripts

9:00 Take the printed materials to the Cabinet Legislation Bureau for examination "Read-through" of another manuscript Check if there are any mistakes

13:00 Call from the Cabinet Legislation Bureau Correction points hear it pointed out, such as

13:30 Cabinet legislation Bureau personnel and discussion

16:00 Government building the contents correction back to

submit such a document was modified at 22:00 Cabinet legislation Bureau "Yomiawase" in the next day sure there are no errors Work preparation

2:00 Return home

The actual situation of long hours of work

I commute to work at 8 am on holidays and return home at 2 am the next day. Certainly it is a "messy way of working".

The first thing I was interested in was the printing time of the materials.

"It takes an hour,"

said Mr. A, who must hurry to deliver the manuscript and other materials to the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. This is to get them to enter the examination as soon as possible.

It took an hour to print the 600-page material on that day, and the youngest person ran with the material.

The distance to the Legislation Bureau is about 1 km. It is said that it is a rule that young people with physical strength run and deliver.

The next thing I was interested in was the time to "read through" the manuscript.

"It will take four hours ?!" The

read-through is done by a pair of people to check the materials for mistakes such as typographical errors.

One person reads the manuscript aloud, and the other listens to it to check if there are any mistakes in kanji, okurigana, line breaks, etc.

For example, "A and B (excluding C)" How to read this sentence ...

It becomes "Key A Kyubi B Parenthesis C Wojokmaru Parenthesis Key Toji".

It's kind of like a spell, but it is said that there is a "Kasumigaseki rule" that the kanji for on-yomi is kun-yomi and the kanji for on-yomi is kun-yomi so that the listener can determine the okurigana of the kanji.

From an amateur's point of view, it may seem like it takes time, but ... it's an old custom.

On the other hand, the manuscript delivered first in the morning.

Called after the examination by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau.

It was 1:00 pm that day.

It had been about 4 hours since it was delivered.

When called by the Legislation Bureau, he was pointed out that he should correct it, and discussed the content with the person in charge.

Repeat this many times.

Overtime hours for one month in January exceed 200 hours, which greatly exceeds the overtime death line.

He said he could only rest on New Year's Day.

Mr. A

"I stayed at the government office for a few days just before the submission. I slept for about 4 hours once every two days."

A bill created with desperation.

However, as a result of re-inspection, a small mistake was found.

Mr. A regretfully says while biting his lips.

Mr. A

"It

's

just an excuse, but I couldn't concentrate on drafting the bill because I was distracted by the fact that it was also a response to infectious diseases. I think we need to increase it. "

But isn't it better to automatically check small simple mistakes with a computer program rather than checking them with the human eye?

Mr. A

"It may be better to consider relying on the power of machines depending on the work. I think it is time to review the operation that depends only on the enthusiasm of the staff."

Is making a bill full of waste?

Even though there was a special situation of corona wreckage, it turned out that it was difficult to make a bill.

Is it unavoidable to work hard because it is an important job?

However, as I proceeded with the interview, I heard a voice complaining, "It's too much to make a bill in the first place."

The voices were raised by young bureaucrats seeking reform of Kasumigaseki's work style.

In May of this year, he proposed to the Minister of State for Special Missions Kono to improve operations.

One of the requests is to review the creation of materials called "5-piece set".

A "5-piece set" is a set of materials created as a set with a bill.

It is customary to make it for explanations to members of parliament, and it may reach 2000 pages.

1

Draft =

Sentence of amendments and additions

2 Outline = Summarize the purpose of the

bill 3 Reason = Describe the purpose of the bill

4 New and old comparison table = Amendments and additions by arranging old and new articles Table

5 Reference Articles = List of Articles of Other Laws Related to the Bill

Mitsutoshi Nozaki, a member of the "Young Reform Team" (4th year of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) said, "Of the" 5-piece set ", only 4" old and new comparison tables "are really needed, and the rest is less necessary." speak.

1 "Draft sentence" is a rewrite of 4 "New and old comparison table" into a sentence called "Revised sentence", so 4 can be used as a substitute.

5 The "reference text" is rarely used.

The reform team argues that 2 "summary" and 3 "reason" should be combined into an easy-to-understand "ponchi-e".

Mr. Nozaki

"Creating a" 5-piece set "is an unnecessarily burdensome task. We would like to create an environment where we bureaucrats can go out to the field to listen to their requests and contribute to the future of Japan."

A "5-piece set" that young people complain that they don't need it.

Why has it been created for so many years?

I contacted the related organizations.

Secretariat of the House of Representatives

"I am not asking from here, but it is customarily submitted in the form of a

" 5-piece set ""

Secretariat of the House of Councilors

"The" 5-piece set "is not specified here."

Cabinet Legislation Bureau

"We have not decided on the format of" 5-piece set ". Maybe it is decided by the Cabinet Secretariat."

Cabinet Secretariat General Affairs Office

"There is no legal basis for" 5-piece set ", and it is customary. I think it continues for reasons such as convenience and visibility. "

Somehow, it's unclear.

So what do parliamentarians think?

Ruling party member

"Always, it's a surprisingly thick material, and it's horrifying. It's a waste if you don't look at it and it's just garbage, but it's hard to say that you don't need it because the bureaucrats make it and bring it."

Opposition lawmaker

"Ponchi-e, which is easy to understand by narrowing down the points, is easier to understand. I read it when asking the Diet, but I think most lawmakers have not read it."

There may be occasions when the material is useful, but what is it that you are struggling to make?

The bureaucrats wouldn't even know.

Reforms triggered by bill mistakes

In response to a series of bill mistakes, the government plans to form a cross-ministerial team and put together measures to prevent recurrence by the end of June.

In Kasumigaseki, as part of work style reform, the custom of stamping administrative procedures and binding documents with "koyori" was abolished last year.

However, many say that the amount of work that has been reduced is small, and I feel that more drastic reforms are needed.

I would like to continue the interview, paying attention to whether the recurrence prevention measures will be constructive content that reflects the voice of the site.

Kasumigaseki's Real Coverage Group

Social Affairs Department Reporter

Sachiyo Sugita