While judicial experts such as the Supreme Court, lawyers' association and the Ministry of Justice dominated the designs of the judicial system for many years in Japan, the users of the judicial services recently express their opinions about the desirable change of the system. That produces heated and continuing arguments between the traditional experts and the proponents of the users' views. This study shows first the characteristics of the arguments between them, second whether the discipline of law and economics can make judgments on the economic outcomes of the proposals of the desired judicial system in terms of economic efficiency, third whether the comparative study of the US' and Japan's judicial systems contribute to the arguments about the judicial reform in Japan.
Depending on the Coase theorem, which spells the quick, certain, and inexpensive legal judgment and the enforcement of it decrease transaction costs, this study argues that the situation in Japan is on the opposite side of that. It also argues that the uncertainty of the law gives more room for judicial discretion to increase transaction costs, and that the government-supported restriction of competition among lawyers gives a lot of profit to the lawyers' guild.

抄録全体を表示

本稿は，自然環境の問題圏をめぐる政策プロセスをガバナンスの視点から考察する。「

」が取りだたされる今日，それまでの政府による一元的な政策プロセス管理の限界が指摘されるようになり，多様なアクターの参画による政策形成が，自然環境政策の分野でも試みられはじめている。しかし，必ずしも期待どおりの成果はあがっていない。

本稿では，従来「

」としてとらえられてきた事態を，「ガバナンスの失敗」ととらえなおすことを提案している。なかでも，政策プロセスの最初の段階で，行政と地域住民を典型とする異なるアクターが，それぞれ異なる「問題」の位相に立っていることを，具体的な事例のなかから明らかにし，その位相の違いがガバナンスの中身を規定していく点に注目する。考察の結果，行政と比較して地域住民は，その解決を強く志向する「問題」を抱えているが，それは政策プロセスをガバナンスの視角からみたときはじめて見出せるものであった。

これからの環境ガバナンスを考えるとき，そうした問題解決への強い志向性をもつことが，アクター相互の「問題」の位相を越えた実践へと結びついていくと考えられ，ガバナンスの特徴である「問題解決への志向性と実践」「結果重視の効率性・透明性」を活かした「よいガバナンス」に向けての取り組みが継続していくと考えられる。

抄録全体を表示

Japan is said to have suffered a “digital defeat” because of the confusion and delay in its digital response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The causes for these problems are threefold: (1) the strong viewpoint of the supply side, (2) vertically divided administrations in each ministry, and (3) differing national and local systems. These issues have been characteristic of Japan's ICT strategy over the past 20 years, but there is also a success story–that of digital infrastructure development. In this paper, to promote movement towards a digitally advanced country, I would like to raise the following points: to invite people with diverse perspectives and values to participate in the decision-making; to distinguish the concepts of digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation; to keep the definitions simple and clear so that everyone in the nation can understand them; and to clarify and share concepts and policies that appropriately identify overall trends and directions.

抄録全体を表示

How should the present socio-economic system be changed and be reorganized as a new system in the coming century? This paper is addressed to the examination of some proposed concepts to this question. We first briefly review the experiences concerning the experiments of socio-economic systems in the 20th century and summarize the lessons into the following three: market failure, government failure and 'grand' failure of planning. After some conceptual discussion related to the terms 'social economy' or 'the third sector', three types of socio-economic systems (American-type, 'social economy' -type, and 'social market' -type) are singled out, and their differences, characteristics and limitations are examined, respectively.

抄録全体を表示

Pension program provides income distribution between younger workers and older retirees who would otherwise live in poverty on inadequate savings. The changing demographic structure of the population will result in a higher proportion of retirees to workers. The pay-as-you-go method of financing public pension is a crucial aspect of the current program and of its financial problem. If nothing were done to change the current program, it is likely that the social security tax rate would have to rise very rapidly in the years ahead, which might cause a public distrust in the program itself.
Public management of the program has been justified in the view of“market failure”of social security in economics, however, it is apparent that“welfare state”has increased fiscal deficits among democratic countries. It is paradoxical that a demographic change is preventing the public management of social security attain the economic goal of not only efficiency but also equity because of financial difficulties.
On the other hand, the public choice theory has pointed out that democratic decision making process results in income distribution through majority rule since its early stages. Now it is time that the basic structure of the public pension program has to be reexamined and reshaped to fit the economic conditions of today.
The World Bank proposed how to reform social security programs. The proposal restricts the roll within minimum standard of living, while privatize its management into market mechanisms, which inspired various arguments the reform in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to examine the idea of constitutional reform to evaluate their performances, and propose the rules within the reform in order to prevent any rooms of government failure.

抄録全体を表示

本研究では、気象情報のサービスプロセスにおける官と民の役割について規範的考察を行う。まず、気象情報が生産され利用されるまでのサービスプロセスを経済学及び社会学的枠組みに依拠して構造化を行う。その上で、わが国の気象情報サービスプロセスの類型化を行う。さらに、気象情報サービスのプロセスにおける中間的生産物を官と民のどちらが供給すべきかと言う視点に立って、官と民の役割分担を規範的に考察する。本研究の主要な結論として、1) 官、すなわち気象庁が提供する情報は、コモディティ化された情報とならざるを得ない。官が提供する防災気象情報は、低コンテクスト情報であり、情報の受け手の意思決定に結びつきにくい。2) 高コンテクスト情報は、民間による市場ベースでの供給が可能であることを指摘している。また、そのための条件として、情報提供者である専門家にコミュニケーション能力が備わっていること、情報の潜在的利用者自身が、自らが潜在的に災害リスクに晒されており、かつ平常時から情報提供者である専門家と信頼関係を築いておく価値を認識することを指摘している。

抄録全体を表示