Abstract
This article follows the historical developments of the role document records have played in policy formation
and planning processes in Japan to the present date. This will allow the National Archives to create a sketch
of the future functions, organizational vision and required professional staff for the storage of archives as an
intellectual resource, the creation of new policies in the administrative management, and the functions of the
National Archives provided for the use of the nation.
The administration of archives by Japanese governments since the Meiji era has focused mainly on
documents that can establish the whereabouts of decisions and responsibility, but it is the records relating
to study and deliberation including the grounds of such decisions and judgments and the possibility of nonpublication that are the materials to verify the quality itself of creating policies and making decisions as a
group and should be the subject of archives to be confronted by governments in the future.
At the same time, it is an intellectual resource to create new policies, and the archives kept by the National
Archives for national use are also necessary in terms of standard policy formation processes.
Reviewing the value of kept archives by the National Archives of Japan itself is essential to lead the systems
of the National Archives to such a new stage. On the other hand, archivists are professionals that support
policy formation, so they should have an intellectual background when it comes to a structural understanding
of and ways to use archives and be in possession of a drive to provide information resources corresponding
to policy issues of the period.
Rather than creating high-quality decision-making, there is a fear that records and information lay behind
arbitrary decisions. Another reason is the need to reconcile accountability such as ensuring falsifiability from
the same era and future historical evaluations.
https://ror.org/00k6n7177 
