Minister's Official Office

The fields administered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are wide-ranging and diverse. They include industrial structural reform, information technology, services, commerce, energy and the environment, small and medium enterprises, technology, and patents.

In order for the Ministry to fulfill its mission of expanding the national wealth that underwrites social security and other policies by making the best of this diversity and sense of speed, it must unify individual policies from these various fields and issue them externally as policy for the development of Japan's economic society.

From this perspective, the Minister's Secretariat comprehensively manages the Ministry's internal affairs. It adjusts major policies, examines laws and ordinances, sets budgets, evaluates policy, promotes information disclosure, and manages organizations and people. It plays a vital role in enabling the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to work in a united way to carry out its administrative activities.

If we compare diversity-rich METI, which is speeding through an ever-changing economy, to a boat, then the Minister's Secretariat is its rudder. This is because the Secretariat is the contact that collaborates with the National Diet, the Prime Minister's official residence and different ministries and agencies, while performing the role of transmitting the decisions taken by the senior minister as the central function under his/her direct control. The Secretariat draws up new policies organizing the ministry's prioritized annual policies, and works out its budget and, by extension, its medium- to long-term missions. The Secretariat thus coordinates the different bureaus and divisions of the ministry and lays out the grand design for the nation and for METI, which supports the nation. As the unit responsible for allocating each and every resource available for METI's use as well as for policy planning and overall management of its organization, the Secretariat is where people and information, whether internal or external, constantly come in or go out, and where every day lively discussions take place in pursuit of a policies that are truly required by the nation. The Secretariat also follows up, without fail, on the implemented policies and their ex-post facto evaluation.

Due to its role as METI's rudder, as mentioned above, the primary characteristic of the Secretariat is its function of coordinating and organizing diverse, wide-ranging policies. It is a unit where each day different bureaus bring together and exchange policy tools, information and human resources, and, by extension, government-wide or private-sector opinions or ideas that transcend ministerial boundaries. This role of the Minister's Secretariat can be divided into three functions that are essential for the METI organization to address policy issues: legislation (law, Cabinet ordinances, ministerial ordinances, etc.), personnel affairs (people), and budgets (money).

The nation's administration operates in accordance with the system of separating the three powers; in many cases each ministry, not only METI, accomplishes its policy mission in accordance with the applicable law or laws. The policy is therefore realized in the form of a new law or an amendment to an existing law.

In charge of steering different ministerial policies, the Secretariat examines legislation for such purposes. This type of legal system is particularly noteworthy in that the Secretariat's function is peculiar to METI as an administrative body and is different from personnel affairs or budgeting, which is a function that all organizations in general are essentially provided with.

People are the most important resource of METI. The Ministry's wide-ranging policy areas are under the control of individual members of. Hence, for high-quality policy planning and execution in the future, it is important, as it has always been, for METI to have capable staff and for these staff to be managed in such a manner that each individual may make full use of his/her capabilities.

The Minister's Secretariat is focused on the management of personnel and the organization, including assigning the right people to the right jobs and improving the workplace environment to permit all staff to make full use of their capabilities on a ministry-wide basis. Further, to back up the important development of its staffing capability, the Secretariat has created or upgraded, principally via the Training Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry, various support training programs that provide personnel with the knowledge and skills necessary to perform their jobs effectively, and has also provided ministry staff with the opportunity to voluntarily participate in self-development activities.

Training Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry

From FY2006, METI has introduced a new personnel system designed to further improve staff performance. Under the new system, the Ministry will use three characters as role models: (i) policy professional, (ii) expert, and (iii) process manager, and will create an environment that will help each staff member to be dedicated to his/her job with a clearer understanding of the problems that need to be addressed and the abilities needed to keep building his/her career. Through these activities, METI seeks to maximize the capabilities of its staff and organization.

Realization of a policy necessarily requires it to be budgeted as well as supported by legislation. Each year, every ministry and agency is required to prepare a budget for its policy execution. In view of the integrated reform of revenue and expenditure and the trend towards a small government in light of the severe fiscal situation in recent years, it has become more important to step up review of the ministry's policies and related budgets. For effective budget allocation in such circumstances, the Minister's Secretariat also closely examines policies and operations drawn up by each bureau at the time of budgeting, and determines or coordinates the process of "estimation – execution – feedback" for the budget.

Another role played by the Secretariat is the promotion of administration that is open to the public. The Secretariat proactively deals with wide-ranging policies including administrative reform, deregulation and information disclosure. The Secretariat addressed, among other things, policy evaluation and adoption of the public comment system at a very early stage, and has pushed ahead with an open, easily understood administrative system that is more familiar and accessible to the general public. Following up on implemented policies and their ex-post facto evaluation are carried out daily within the ministry.

Further, in order to extensively inform the public of the Ministry's wide-ranging activities and policies and simultaneously listening to their opinions, the Secretariat publishes periodicals, white papers and various other reports, disseminates information by making full use of the Internet, and actively encourages the exchange of opinions through the mass media.

The Minister's Secretariat is working on construction of an information system that can enhance the Ministry's internal organizational competitiveness and work efficiency. It is also the first organization among central government ministries and agencies to have developed a basic information system for use in emergencies.

METI also operates a universal electronic application system (ITEM2000) linked to government application centers, which enables the public, corporations, and so on to make various types of applications to the Ministry via the Internet.