Digitally Transforming Japan: A Conversation with former Digital Minister Karen Makishima

Описание: Established on September 1, 2021, Japan’s Digital Agency has already taken critical, concrete steps towards creating a basis for much-needed productivity enhancements using digital tools, and embedding Japan more solidly in global IT infrastructure.

Located in a brand new, commercial building outside the Kasumigaseki area, the agency began with approximately a third of its 600+ employees from the private sector to create a new organizational and working culture. It selected global IT firms to provide "government cloud" services, aiming to integrate fragmented local and central government IT services. In COVID times, it quickly rolled out a nationwide database and app for confirming the vaccination status of the population and is poised to take on more ambitious goals such as expanding the My Number system toward universal use by the Japanese population.

In this conversation, former Minister Makishima shares how the Digital Agency is spearheading Japan's digital transformation and what challenges might lie ahead. She is joined by discussant Kenji E. Kushida and host Kiyoteru Tsutsui.

Karen Makishima is a member of the House of Representatives in Japan from the Kanagawa 17th district since 2012. She previously served as the Minister for Digital, Minister in charge of Administrative Reform, Minister of State for Regulatory Reform, and Minister of State in charge of affairs concerning the Cybersecurity Strategic Headquarters. Dr. Makishima is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and serves as the Deputy Chairperson of the Diet Affairs Committee. She holds a PhD from the Graduate School of International Christian University, an MA from George Washington University, and graduated from the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University.

Kenji E. Kushida is Senior Fellow at the Asia Program in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) directing Japan research and programming themed “Innovative Japan, Global Japan” and he leads the Japan-Silicon Valley Innovation Initiative@Carnegie. He is also an International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) and nonresident senior fellow at the Tokyo Institute for Policy Studies (TIPS). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Deputy Director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, where he is also Director of the Japan Program. He is the author of Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan (Oxford University Press, 2018), co-editor of Corporate Responsibility in a Globalizing World (Oxford University Press, 2016) and co-editor of The Courteous Power: Japan and Southeast Asia in the Indo-Pacific Era (University of Michigan Press, 2021).