Policy-Making Process of Prefectural FOIA and the Role of Policy Determinants

Abstract

This Study examines how 27 prefectural governments started their policy making process of the Freedom of Information Acts and enacted them. The policy idea was so strong in the early 1980s that all prefectures begun their efforts to enact FOIA almost simultaneously, but the years of enactment vary widely. The comparison of 27 policy making processes reveals that they followed quite similar policy processes, that an early stage of policy research within each administration made difference, and that in the stage four policy determinants played important roles. The four determinants include organizational resources, top management’s leadership, partisan politics in the assembly, and the diffusion factor.