The creation of a digital agency is a top policy priority for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
However, the protracted distribution of a ¥100,000 handout for each resident amid the coronavirus pandemic and the use of fax, now essentially obsolete in most other nations, for reporting COVID-19 infections have laid bare the government’s delay in taking advantage of digital technology.
Though the country possesses quality communications infrastructures, such as fiber optic and mobile phone networks, these have not been utilized sufficiently, with little emphasis on the convenience of users as the starting point — a situation that digital transformation minister Takuya Hirai repeatedly called “the defeat in the digital war.”