Minister's Secretariat

Minister's Official Office

METI handles the administration of wide-ranging and diverse areas which include trade, industry, the environment, energy, consumers, local economies, small and medium enterprises, technology and patents, most of which are also inter-related.
One important task is therefore to bring together the individual policies created in different areas and communicate these to the world as an integrated policy plan for Japan's socioeconomic development.
From this perspective, the Minister's Secretariat is responsible for overall ministry management, such as coordination of key policies, inspection of laws, budget formation, policy evaluation, promotion of information disclosure, and organizational and personnel management. It plays a key role in enabling METI to engage in administrative activities as a single body.

>	Steering the way

To realize a dynamic and affluent new socioeconomy which reflects diverse values, the Minister's Secretariat takes the ideas refined through daily considerations in the various departments within METI and delineates medium- to long-term directions which Japan should pursue, as well as concrete tasks which need to be undertaken to that end, identifying and systemizing policies requiring immediate and intensive implementation and engaging in overall management of the policy drafting process within METI. The Secretariat also ensures that external policy measures are conveyed without delay.
The above process is conducted primarily by the Minister's Secretariat, with communication and sharing of information between the Minister's Secretariat and the various other departments in the Ministry promoted based on views drawn from within and beyond METI.

>	Taking action

One major job of the Minister's Secretariat is to determine exactly what concrete measures will be taken to implement the policies which METI creates. Statutory examination comprises discussion from the perspective of both legal and policy theory in order to design the legal system most appropriate to take society and the economy in the desired direction.
Budget requests have also been made at Ministry level in recent years with a view to effective policy implementation under tighter fiscal constraints. Reviews are frequently conducted to ensure that the organizational structure of the Ministry can adapt flexibly to the dramatically changing external and domestic social situation.

>	Providing vision

The collapse of the bubble economy exposed weaknesses in the system which had supported the development of postwar Japan, spurring calls for systemic reform. At the same time, the inversion of the age pyramid, growing internationalization, and the advent of an era of mega-competition have made it extremely difficult to forecast the future of Japan's socioeconomy. Discussion of cross-cutting themes from a number of angles is therefore underway among both departments and ministries to create a vision for the socioeconomy of the future and the roadmap needed to reach that point. In drawing up that roadmap, considerations and analyses are conducted at one step removed in order to avoid the constraints imposed by the METI framework. Exchanges of views are held with key players involved with the Ministry to determine real policy needs and the shape of the socioeconomy to come.

>	Opening doors

One of the roles of the Minister's Secretariat is to promote administration which is open to the public. METI is actively pursuing a variety of measures, including administrative reform, deregulation, and information disclosure. The Ministry has been quick to introduce policy evaluation and public comment systems, promoting open and easily understood administration to realize a style of administration closer to the public.
To introduce METI's wide-ranging efforts and policies to the greater public, the Minister's Secretariat publishes a variety of periodicals and reports, and also makes full use of the Internet to actively communicate information to the public.

>	"Informatization"

Stimulating intellectual activity
METI needs to be constantly producing new ideas. To an organization committed to the creation of the new, information is as essential as blood to the human body. Information systems act as pumps, simultaneously delivering information to the furthest corners. In the era to come, policy planning and drafting will hinge on information-gathering capacity and speed of decision-making. The effective utilization of information systems will become key infrastructure supporting the Ministry's "brain."
The Intranet created within the Ministry, as well as the Kasumigaseki WAN, an information communications network among government ministries, and then the Internet itself, enable expeditious gathering of the information needed for policy-making. E-government, a pioneering step toward the creation of an information society, is also becoming a reality.
This "informatization" goes beyond the introduction of new technology. The Minister's Secretariat is in charge of selecting, procuring and operating information systems, as well as providing training and system maintenance to optimize the use of such systems throughout the Ministry.

Promotion of e-government
As the ministry responsible for Japan's information industry policy, METI is actively taking the lead as an e-government pioneer. Based on the e-Government Establishment Plan formulated in July 2003, infrastructure and systems to upgrade and seek more efficiency in administrative services are under development, and provision of user-oriented electronic services is being promoted.
In terms of public services, the Minister's Secretariat is developing the electronic application systems (ITEM2000) to realize this, as well as the information systems for the METI Certificate Authority. The Secretariat is now developing IT infrastructure to enable staff to utilize computers to the greatest possible extent in their daily work such as document management, procedure for approvals or legislative data search.
While providing services via the Internet allows wide-ranging free access, it is also important to take security measures to provide protection from illicit access. One important task of the Minister's Secretariat is to determine security policy and ensure the correct operation of information systems.

>	Developing human resources

The human element is obviously vital in planning, drafting and implementing high-quality policy in a wide range of policy areas. People are the Ministry's greatest asset, and the Minister's Secretariat addresses personnel evaluations and assignments to ensure the Ministry's optimal performance as an organization.

Training Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry

A training system has been developed to provide staff with the knowhow and skills necessary to perform their jobs, as well as various programs supporting self-education, enabling each staff member to operate with ambition and a broad and deep knowledge base.