The government will draw up a set of guidelines by year-end on how administrative documents should be managed, including a clearer definition of papers that can be discarded within one year, a newly-appointed minister in charge of administrative reforms said Wednesday.
"We need to put forward general rules that can be applied to all the ministries on public document management," said Hiroshi Kajiyama, who also serves as the minister of regional revitalization, during a joint interview with The Japan Times and other media outlets.
Based on his review of how the government manages administrative papers, Kajiyama has so far flagged "many issues" including how long they should be preserved and how communications between ministries should be recorded.