In a survey conducted by NHK to all governors and mayors nationwide ahead of the unified local elections, more than 8% of respondents answered that digitalization is "effective," while many voices cited issues in terms of finances and human resources.
Ahead of the unified local elections, NHK conducted the first large-scale survey of all 1,2 governors and mayors of municipalities nationwide from January to February, and received responses from 1788,93 people, or 1664%.
When asked how effective they think digitalization is in terms of
cost-effectiveness, 26.6% said it was very effective, 59.6% said it was somewhat effective, while
11.8%
said it was not very effective. 0.6% answered "not effective at all," far exceeding the number of respondents who answered "effective."
However, the evaluation of the effect varies depending on the size of the local government, and the number of people who answered "very effective" was
▽ Governors and
mayors of ordinance-designated cities exceeded 7% ▽ About 23% of ward mayors of Tokyo's 5 wards
▽ More than 3%
of mayors other than
▽ The number of mayors and village mayors is only in the 1% range.
In addition, when we asked the mayors of municipalities who answered that it was "not effective" about the reason, they found that
▽ "the introduction cannot proceed due to financial problems" ▽ "capital investment and maintenance costs are expected to be higher than the effect of the introduction"
In addition to financial issues,
▽ "It is difficult to secure human resources" ▽ "The aging rate is high and I do not feel any merit"
▽ "Small municipalities can respond to residents even with analog methods" were pointed out.
Takamitsu Asaoka, Counselor of the Digital Agency, said, "I feel that there are a certain number of local governments that are positive about digitalization but cannot proceed due to various reasons," and said that he would like to provide support by dispatching staff from leading local governments to local governments that want to promote digitalization.
Local governments working on digitalization
Takamori Town, Nagano Prefecture, with a population of about 1,3000 who answered "very effective" in this survey, is actively working on digitalization to increase the time spent with the townspeople by improving administrative efficiency.
The newly established DX Promotion Section was staffed by people from the private sector, and all employees were provided with laptops to enable telework, and approval was made online.
Furthermore, last year, we introduced the "electronic contract service" to contracts with external vendors.
At the time of contract, the contract can be completed simply by signing it on the cloud, eliminating the need for printing, mailing, stamping, etc. that were done in written contracts, and the contractor does not need revenue stamps.
According to the service operator, this is the first town or village in Japan to introduce this "electronic contract service".
Contractors in the town who have contracted for electronic services no longer have to go back and forth to and from the town hall to exchange documents, which frees them up more time for other tasks.
In the future, Takamori Town plans to create a team of 10 people across departments and accelerate the realization of digitalization to improve administrative services.
Mayor Terugen Mibu said, "I think DX is a necessary means to clarify the parts that will be mechanized to some extent and the parts that must be protected as people. We will make effective use of the machines so that the staff can have time to face the townspeople with a small number of human resources."
Expert: "From the perspective of not only improving administrative efficiency but also improving resident services"
Associate Professor Kazunori Kawamura of Tohoku University Graduate School, who is an expert on the digitalization of local governments, analyzes the results of this survey, saying, "After the coronavirus pandemic, many mayors may have strongly recognized the effects of digitalization and thought that it was necessary to promote it, although it is expensive."
On the other hand, regarding the evaluation of the effect divided depending on the size of the local government, he said, "Where digitalization is clearly positive for administrative efficiency due to a certain amount of fiscal capacity or a large population, we will actively support it, but in places where small municipalities or aging populations are progressing, there are no financial resources. Staff and residents are also not very good at it, so the shades are divided."
"Thinking about digitalization only in terms of administrative efficiency is a narrow perspective, and it is necessary to have a perspective of improving services to residents and ultimately local autonomy. He said.