JSIST 2004 Pages: December 8, 2004

Speaker: OTAKE Haruhiko, Director, Government Data Research Center of Japan

December 8, 2004

Mr. Otake presented an overview of the government information and publication and its distribution system both in-print and "born digital". Demands for easy access to government information led to the government official plan and policy guidelines for "E-Gov" 2003 which has been implemented and revised since then. The portal is one product of an integrated effort to ensure easy access to information from various government ministries and agencies. Mr. Otake noted two issues related to the government online information: 1) easy access and 2) archiving government documents. The absence of a well-thought organization of the materials makes the access to information hard. Archiving is an other problematic issue since the E-Gov guidelines require the publications and information to be available through the respective agencies web sites for only three years.

[Prepared by Eiichi Ito.]

Speaker: ITO Katsunao, SHIMIZU Naoki and YAMAZAKI Haruo, NDL

December 8, 2004

Mr. Ito discussed the basics of searching legal information both in print and online. An overview of the organization and the different levels of laws and regulations was introduced. The importance of the history of law and regulation amendments for legal research was emphasized. Both print and online legal information were introduced, including Nihon Horei Sakuin, Horei Deta Teikyo System.

It was also noted that in spite of the increasing availability of legal information online, there are cases in which a researcher has to rely on both print and online resources so as to find the first enactment of a particular law and the text of a law before and after it was amended.

Mr. Yamazaki presented an overview of the legislative information resources including Kokkai Kaigiroku Kensaku System at the National Diet Library and the limitations of this system, and showed how to search Diet sessions on a particular legislation. In addition, Mr. Yamazaki provided some useful websites related to legislative information and other issues that he uses for his own daily reference work at the NDL.

Mr. Shimizu presented the government statistical information resources including the White Papers and other official statistical data both in-print and online such as the portal of the government statistical data and Seifu Shiryo Abusutorakuto.

[Prepared by Eiichi Ito.]