2019 Volume 18 Pages 75-89
This paper focuses on the cultural fit between global public sector reform ideas and their application within the Japanese context. In recent decades, many politico-administrative reform ideas have been transferred from one country to another, backed by similar political ideologies, e.g. neo-liberalism and managerialism, and similar practical reasons, e.g. fiscal deficit in the government sector, especially in developed countries. Among such initiatives is agency reform, the so-called ‘agencification’ phenomenon, in which semi-autonomous, arm’s length agencies are created with a focus on policy implementation. These organisations are structurally disaggregated from central departments and act with some degree of independence. The design of this type of agency is different from conventional bureaucratic organisations in that they have more autonomy and discretion, are more performance-focused than process-oriented, and thus should improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public service delivery. The Japanese central government adopted this type of administrative agency in 2001, known as the Independent (Incorporated) Administrative Agency (IAA; dokuritsugyosei-hojin) scheme, under a strong politico-administrative reform initiative. The design and creation of the IAA was modelled after the experience of the UK’s reform agenda. This research focuses on the compatibility between this exogenously transferred idea of the organisational institution and the Japanese politico-administrative and cultural contexts. This paper specifically explores the fit between such an exogenous public management idea and an embedded national cultural dimension. Based on the implications of the well-known Hofstede’s National Culture Dimensions, this work will reveal that the Japanese national context is originally not entirely compatible with the types of agencies represented by its global counterparts.
