The New Statistics Law and Policy Issues to be Considered During its Enforcement

Abstract

The new statistics law in Japan was promulgated and will come into force on April 1^st 2009. It was drastically revised after 60 years enforcement to modernize Japanese statistical system and to meet changing social requirements.

The new law expands its sphere in terms of application in several dimensions in which Japanese statistical system has been lagging behind: (1) regulations for producing better quality data and their relevant use are expanded substantially from survey statistics to non-survey statistics, e.g., secondary statistics and statistics based on administrative records; (2) furnishing infrastructure that facilitates better quality data, namely, creating and maintaing a business register as the sampling frame and statistical use of administrative information; and (3) furnishing a system for the secondary use of official statistics.

The newly proposed statistical system is based on a new concept that official statistical data should be a kind of public goods produced and disseminated not exclusively for governmental purposes as is the case at present but also for the general public including a wide range of secondary users, such as academics or business users. Official statistics should be regarded as information assets with multidimensional usability. The paper also focuses on a proposal for the official statistical data archive in order to fully utilize statistical information.