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2. Advancing the grand reform of Tokyo

The annual number of births in our country is projected to fall below one million for the first time since the compilation of statistics. In Tokyo as well, the population is expected to start declining from 2025. The sustainable growth of society is rooted in “intellectual creativity.” If new generations -- the creators of innovation -- continue to decrease, this will be a matter of life or death for our country, which lacks natural resources. Today, as we face a difficult environment at home and abroad, and the future becomes increasingly uncertain, adhering to concepts that are merely an extension of what has come before is what will plunge us into the maelstrom.

Looking at this from a different perspective, however, the fluid international situation also presents Tokyo with the opportunity to attract highly-skilled professionals and investment from around the world and accelerate growth. We will break free from traditional ways of thinking, grasp global trends, and do what must be done. This is what will enable us to carve a future filled with hope for each and every citizen of Tokyo.

That is why we must carry out major reform of Tokyo now. In order to fulfill our responsibility to the current and future residents of Tokyo, we must advance the “grand reform of Tokyo.” The grand reform of Tokyo is about changing the way the metropolitan government works, as well as its structure, by instilling greater transparency and carrying out autonomous reforms to constantly generate new ideas that are not simply an extension of what has come before, but go beyond. That also includes advancing worthy policies that gain the support of the people of Tokyo, and doing this together with them to build a bright future where everyone can play an active role.

Since taking office, I have unearthed a wide range of issues within the Tokyo government. With respect to matters for which doubts exist from the perspective of the citizens of Tokyo, even if it was a matter that had already been decided, we stopped to reassess it. The Office of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Reform, which was established last September, carried out a review of the budget for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and was able to reduce metropolitan facility construction costs by about 40 billion yen. We are also working on reform of information disclosure, internal control, and autonomous reform.

Concerning information disclosure, we will strive to release requested documents in their original form to the greatest extent possible and move away from heavily blacking out sections of the documents. We will also advance measures to make viewing of public documents free of charge, provide access to public documents free of charge using information and communication technology (ICT), release information on the spending of public funds, and make council meetings and their minutes public. My official schedule is now available on the TMG website, and we are also advancing greater transparency in the budget compilation process such as by publicly hearing the budget requests from the metropolitan assembly, municipalities, and various organizations. With respect to the tendering system as well, we are currently conducting a study on making changes concerning the single bid issue and preannouncements of the “minimum bid” and “maximum bid” allowed.

Regarding autonomous reform, led by the director generals of our bureaus, who also serve as members of the Office of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Reform, efforts are underway on the frontlines, and close to 500 topics have been addressed to date, including improving services for Tokyo residents and making projects more efficient. In addition, about 600 suggestions have been made by individual TMG employees through the “suggestion box” system. Prompted by one of those suggestions, I recently visited a metropolitan high school and had the opportunity to offer words of encouragement to the students who will be the leaders of the future. I believe that by having the Tokyo government employees feel that they can make proposals and work with the governor for the betterment of Tokyo will lead to a metropolitan government that puts the Tokyo citizens first.

Actually, the TMG has not formulated an “administrative reform plan” since fiscal 2006. Therefore, we will start work in April to formulate a reform plan for 2020 to accompany the action plan for 2020, and we plan to engage in matters including making operations more efficient, appropriately dividing the roles of the public and private sectors, strategically using extra-governmental organizations, and changing personnel systems and implementation systems to suit the times. Ahead of this process, we recently established a project team for life-work balance. Starting next fiscal year, we will also raise the level of autonomous reform in each of the bureaus. Past efforts for reform on the working level will be raised to management and strategic reform, which incorporates the perspectives of putting the citizens of Tokyo first and wise spending. To that end, for the foreseeable future, we will work for disclosure of information on the status of major programs, or in other words, greater transparency, and conduct a comprehensive review of operations, including whether budgets, staffing, and service levels are being maintained at the appropriate levels, and, whether there are other more effective policies that can be implemented.

In this way, with information disclosure as the cornerstone, by comprehensively reviewing all existing structures, systems, and measures from the standpoint of wise spending and putting the citizens of Tokyo first, we will refine the TMG to make it an organization that resolves challenges through flexible thinking.

The post-retirement employment of former employees of Japan’s education ministry is currently a major issue. Although the TMG enacted an ordinance last fiscal year, with a third party committee checking and managing the system, we will take this occasion to once again examine the post-retirement employment of management level TMG officials, as well as the extra-governmental organization system.