The Digital Agency kicked off operations Wednesday in the hope that it will become a powerful engine driving Japan’s digital transformation as part of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s administrative reform agenda.
The move is expected to push the digitalization of a public sector notorious for its limited use of digital tools in administrative procedures.
Since a lack of tech specialists in the government is considered to be a major factor in Japan’s poor progress in digitalization, the agency has strengthened its personnel by adding about 130 people from the private sector. The agency is starting off with about 600 workers, about four times more than its predecessor, the IT Strategic Headquarters.