Public Records Management in the Planning Administration

Abstract

Public records management and information disclosure are considered as two vital elements in the planning administration. It is only when government agency records are explicitly defined and identified by people that they can request information and use it. However, in Japan's Information Disclosure Law, the maintained records are insufficient and the definition of agency records is rather limited. Therefore, since the Law was put into force, agency records often do not exist by their definition and are disposed of due to the insufficiency of the maintained records. For example, with regard to time taking projects, original documents on cost benefit analysis are disposed of even before the completion of the projects. This makes the task of reviewing government activities extremely difficult for the people, the Diet, courts, and administrative internal review committees.