The Rules for Records Management and the Transfer of Documents in National University before the Information Disclosure Law

A case of the University of Tokyo

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical description of the process of document transfer as prescribed by the rules for records management that were to be followed by national universities before the Information Disclosure Law was passed. In 1988, the University of Tokyo, the first national university, specified that the documents should be transferred to the History Office in the rules that were laid down for records management.

However, this system of document transfer did not function properly because of two main reasons. The first is that the universityʼs secretariat kept avoiding the task of specifying appraisal procedures in detail. Second, the university archives in-charge did not appraise the transferred documents. As a result of this, the transfer of documents at the national university did not function efficiently before the Information Disclosure Law was passed.