By ASAKO MYORAKU/ Staff Writer
October 11, 2023 at 15:21 JST
The prime minister's office in Tokyo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
The government decided to prioritize six key sectors, including ride-sharing, in its efforts to digitally transform administrative and financial procedures.
A digital administrative and fiscal reform meeting chaired by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held its first discussions on Oct. 11.
The government plans to compile an interim report by the end of the year, and necessary measures will be incorporated into the budget for next fiscal year.
The six key sectors are: education; mobility; nursing care; child rearing and child welfare; disaster prevention; and inbound tourism.
The government will reassess regulations and systems that hinder the use of digital technologies in these sectors, enabling them to better tackle labor shortages and alleviate the burden on front-line workers.
In the education sector, the goal is to equalize the differing digital environments among municipalities and to resolve such issues as teacher shortages and long working hours.
In the nursing-care sector, the government will reassess staff deployment and improve the quality of services by using robots to combat the ongoing labor shortage.
To improve the mobility sector, the government is exploring the use of ride-sharing, in which individuals use their private vehicles to transport passengers for a fee, in areas with limited taxis and buses.
Taro Kono, the digital transformation minister who is also in charge of regulatory reform, had expressed a positive stance toward legalizing ride-sharing, noting the drop in the number of taxi drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in tourist spots and underpopulated areas.
“I’m keen on actively discussing ride-sharing, especially concerning areas that lack public transportation,” he said at a news conference on Sept. 22.
The government is looking to develop infrastructure and simplify procedures for the use of automated vehicles and drones.
To handle the increase in tourists from abroad, the government will consider facilitating the use of financial institutions and foreign remittances of small sums.
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