As part of his political agenda to bring politics closer to people, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has been eager to strengthen the system to manage and keep official documents. Although he will resign soon, we hope that ongoing efforts will continue and reach fruition.

On the initiative of Mr. Fukuda, an expert panel was established. It submitted an interim report early July calling for a drastic change in the system. At present, the Cabinet Office and the internal affairs ministry are separately in charge of overseeing the management and keeping of official documents. The interim report proposes that a new organization be created solely to oversee such work. The panel is scheduled to submit a final report in October. A related bill is expected to be submitted to the Diet next year.

Compared with corresponding organizations in other countries, the National Archives of Japan's power and function are insufficient. The archives only have 42 archival staffers and its status has been downgraded from a pure government body to an independent administrative agency.

The interim report proposed that the National Archives either regain the status of a government body or be given a new legal status endowed with the power to smoothly collect official documents, not only from administrative entities but also from the Diet and the courts.

It also proposed that new archives have about 500 archival staffers. If this is realized, the archives' setup will be closer to that of other developed countries. The National Archives and Records Administration of the United States has about 2,500 archival staffers, Germany has about 800 archival staffers and Britain about 580.

For the new archives to function properly, staff training will become important. It will also be important for the government to set down unified rules for bureaucrats to follow in managing and keeping official documents. Most importantly, they must learn that such documents are the people's property, not theirs.