Abstract
In our everyday lives evaluation has many faces, and as a result of the impact of the New Public Management (NPM) movement, many students of public administration and administrators in the Japanese public sector have confused evaluation with measurement, rating, valuing, audit, inspection, appraisal and assessment. But in its essence, evaluation is data-gathering, data-analysis activities using scientific methods and tools of administrative skills. Taking a short historical perspective, this article focuses on this confusion, and considers what the ‘evaluation’ is.
