This is the second installment of a series in collaboration with the World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Japan, which will explore how the coronavirus pandemic has revealed the need for a reset of the world’s economic and social systems.
Japan is renowned for its advanced technology, yet many parts of society remain decidedly analog — its government in particular.
Countries from Estonia to India are speeding ahead with digital-government initiatives designed to reduce paperwork and eliminate long waits at government offices, but Japan seems permanently attached to paper and hanko stamps. According to the Japan Research Institute, the national government has more than 55,000 administrative procedures, only 7.5 percent of which can be done entirely online.