In September 2021, Japan set the ball rolling with its digital policy as the new Digital Agency took office in Tokyo. While the country steps up to transform itself digitally, let us try to understand why it continues to be identified as digitally backward despite being distinctly technologically more advanced than the rest of the world. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Digital Economy Outlook 2020 put Japan at the lowest rank amongst 31 countries in online procedures. As opposed to European countries like Estonia, Denmark, and Iceland where nearly 70 percent of the population utilises digital applications at public offices, Japan is barely at 5.4 percent. In 2001, Japan launched the e-government strategy in an attempt to carry out information technology reforms. However, two decades later, paper-based administrative services and usage of FAX continue to be widespread.
Japan’s Digital Agency: Another shot in the dark or an emblem of change | ORF (orfonline.org)
