ABSTRACT
Japanese government has recently organized major administrative reforms to adapt its public administration to the emerging challenges both from international and domestic communities. The reform agenda included the areas of restructuring, privatization, decentralization, strengthening of the local government, creation of incorporated administrative agencies, civil service improvement, promotion of e-governance, etc. The reforms are
directed at strengthening the leadership of the government, central and local, to promote accountability, transparency, and participation of the civil society, and to make public administration responsive and responsible to new issues of social equity, efficiency, and effectiveness. This chapter will focus on these current reform efforts that began in 1996 in Japan, analyze the several factors that make these the most comprehensive and drastic major administrative reforms a reality, and draw innovations of administrative reform undertakings as lessons of experiences that may be of use to the future major administrative reforms in Japan and elsewhere.
