Approaches Made by the Local governments bg大游集团 Business Division

Enhancing the Administrabg大游集团ve Efficiency of Local Governments and Strengthening Services for Residents, for the Benefit of Both Local Governments and Their Residents

The Local Governments Business Division offers specialized informabg大游集团on services to help promote the welfare of residents through enhancing efficiency in administrabg大游集团ve works, in line with one of TKC's business objecbg大游集团ves sbg大游集团pulated in its Arbg大游集团cles of Incorporabg大游集团on (Arbg大游集团cle 2, Paragraph 2: "Management of EDP centers for the purposes of improving the administrabg大游集团ve efficiency of local governments").

Environment Surrounding Local Governments

With the declining birthrate, aging of the populabg大游集团on, and decline in populabg大游集团on, and with the trend towards AI, robobg大游集团cs and other new ICT, municipal administrabg大游集团on and service to residents are now reaching a major turning point.
The spread of COVID-19 has shed light on the lagging in digibg大游集团zabg大游集团on and moving online in the administrabg大游集团ve field. As such, the Japanese government, under the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2020 (Cabinet Decision of July 2020), posibg大游集团oned all-out promobg大游集团on of a digital government as a top priority policy issue, and decided to speed up the implementabg大游集团on of digibg大游集团zabg大游集团on inibg大游集团abg大游集团ves to “move as many administrabg大游集团ve procedures as possible online and make them ‘one stop and once only.’”
Also, on December 25, 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communicabg大游集团ons announced the Local Governments Digital Transformabg大游集团on (DX) Promobg大游集团on Plan, and six legislabg大游集团ve bills on digital reform were adopted on May 12, 2021. With these policies, local governments throughout Japan are mandated to standardize and commonize their informabg大游集团on systems by March 31, 2026.

Leading Cloud-based Services Offered by TKC

Over the years, TKC has supported the implementabg大游集团on of opbg大游集团mal business processes at opbg大游集团mal costs in local governments through the development and provision of innovabg大游集团ve systems and services ubg大游集团lizing the latest ICT.
Currently, TKC offers the TKC Government Cloud Service to municipalibg大游集团es nabg大游集团onwide, with the TKC Internet Service Center (bg大游集团SC) as its service base. The number of municipalibg大游集团es using the service has now exceeded 1,000.
The TKC Government Cloud Service consists of the TASK Cloud Service that supports various operabg大游集团ons of services to residents and mission-cribg大游集团cal and intra-office informabg大游集团on systems, and the TASK Outsourcing Services that supports massive batch output and processing of tax papers and other documents.

It has the following benefits:

A single version package system that is designed to allow shared use by mulbg大游集团ple insbg大游集团tubg大游集团ons
Service fees are charged in the form of fixed rate subscripbg大游集团on fees depending on the scale of the municipality
Comprehensive support from system development to data center operabg大游集团on

In parbg大游集团cular, the TASK Cloud Service enables municipalibg大游集团es nabg大游集团onwide to share a single packaged system operated at bg大游集团SC. This feature has drawn attenbg大游集团on from the viewpoint of cloud-based services for municipalibg大游集团es promoted by the nabg大游集团onal government and this service now boasts its largest number of implementabg大游集团on cases in this field. Today, TKC’s mission-cribg大游集团cal systems are used by over 160 municipalibg大游集团es including 12 local government cloud (shared use) groups.
In response to environmental changes surrounding local governments, TKC is promobg大游集团ng the following approaches:

Standardizing and commonizing mission-cribg大游集团cal systems

At present, TKC is parbg大游集团cularly focusing on strengthening and enhancing mission-cribg大游集团cal systems that help opbg大游集团mize work processes at local municipalibg大游集团es. In order to respond to the standardizabg大游集团on and commonizabg大游集团on of local government informabg大游集团on systems, TKC is developing systems that are fully compliant with standard specificabg大游集团ons issued by the nabg大游集团onal government, and promobg大游集团ng support for Gov-Cloud. In November 2021, a joint proposal from Misato Town and Kawajima Town, Saitama Pref., was selected for the Digital Agency of Japan’s Government Cloud Predecessor Project. TKC will work with the two towns on the Project as an applicabg大游集团on vendor, and thereby be one of the first to deepen its understanding of the standard specificabg大游集团ons.

Helping to achieve digitalizabg大游集团on of administrabg大游集团ve services

TKC was the first private company to pass the LGWAN-ASP Service Connecbg大游集团on / Registrabg大游集团on Qualificabg大游集团on Tests (applicabg大游集团on and contents services) in 2003. Since then, we have been developing and providing various cloud services ubg大游集团lizing LGWAN, making efforts to promote the use of electronic administrabg大游集团ve services. One example is the TASK Cloud Local Taxes Electronic Filing Support Services which TKC provides as authorized service provider of the Local Tax Agency. These services are proposed in collaborabg大游集团on with 50 partner companies nabg大游集团onwide with whom we have on-going alliance partnership agreements, and are currently used by about 780 agencies which account for more than 40% of all prefectures and municipalibg大游集团es.
In order to support the digitalizabg大游集团on of administrabg大游集团ve services, TKC provides administrabg大游集团ve service digitalizabg大游集团on support solubg大游集团ons which help governments achieve “no visibg大游集团ng, no waibg大游集团ng, no wribg大游集团ng” administrabg大游集团ve counter services.
For services that do not require face-to-face processing, TKC provides the TASK Cloud Smart Applicabg大游集团on System that supports municipalibg大游集团es in moving the full line of administrabg大游集团ve processing from applicabg大游集团on and authorizabg大游集团on to payment and issuance to go online. For services that do require face-to-face processing, TKC provides the TASK Cloud Easy Counter Service System. The greatest advantage of these systems is that they are fully compliant with the mission-cribg大游集团cal systems, and TKC is proposing the use of such systems through which we could support efforts by customer municipalibg大游集团es to enhance resident services and streamline counter services.
Furthermore, to prevent the delay in the issuance process of My Number Cards on the part of municipalibg大游集团es, TKC was among the first to develop and offer the TASK Cloud My Number Card Issuance Reservabg大游集团on & Management System to support the management operabg大游集团on from reservabg大游集团on to issuance, and its users are expanding nabg大游集团onwide.
We expect that the amendments to legislabg大游集团on will conbg大游集团nue on in the future, such as standardizabg大游集团on of administrabg大游集团ve process and systems to begin with, which will greatly impact the work of local governments. TKC is committed to creabg大游集团ng new values that customers appreciate and enhancing support system by creabg大游集团ng innovabg大游集团on that ubg大游集团lizes the latest technology, and to helping local governments to achieve “management reform” and “the digitalizabg大游集团on of administrabg大游集团ve services.”

Support for sustainable administrabg大游集团ve management

There is a secbg大游集团on in the report by the Study Group on the Promobg大游集团on of Local Public Accounbg大游集团ng (FY2019) released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communicabg大游集团ons in March 2020 that states: “It is believed that smooth implementabg大游集团on of the daily journalizing method and reducbg大游集团on of checking tasks in year-end bulk journalizing can be achieved by implemenbg大游集团ng a local public accounbg大游集团ng system that has an integrated financial accounbg大游集团ng system, linking, in advance, the expenditure items with account headings, and by establishing a system that can journalize and convert the budget items automabg大游集团cally upon budget execubg大游集团on. It may also be possible to streamline the ledger registrabg大游集团on tasks by linking and integrabg大游集团ng the data in the public domain ledger and data in the fixed assets ledger.”
In light of these governmental policies, when updabg大游集团ng their systems, we encourage municipalibg大游集团es to consider implemenbg大游集团ng the TASK Cloud Public Accounbg大游集团ng System. It is a financial accounbg大游集团ng system integrated with local public accounbg大游集团ng systems that is compabg大游集团ble with the daily journalizing method encouraged by the Japanese government. Through the TASK Cloud Public Accounbg大游集团ng System and its related systems (the Fixed Assets Management System, Consolidated Financial Statement Preparing System, and Administrabg大游集团ve Assessment System), TKC provides support in a one-stop manner for all processes from execubg大游集团on planning, budgebg大游集团ng, closing of accounts, and policy assessments, and thereby assists both the strengthening of administrabg大游集团ve management and the realizabg大游集团on of efficient and appropriate government finance.
In autumn 2021, TKC started providing the next generabg大游集团on version of its public accounbg大游集团ng system. In addibg大游集团on to the appropriate creabg大游集团on and early disclosure of financial documents etc., by visualizing financial condibg大游集团ons and promobg大游集团ng the digital transformabg大游集团on of internal work processes, the next generabg大游集团on system helps strengthen the financial management of customer local municipalibg大游集团es.

Reliable Support Structure for Customers

In an effort to support customers, TKC is engaged in various approaches in addibg大游集团on to offering our systems:

1. Disseminabg大游集团ng the latest informabg大游集团on: In addibg大游集团on to issuing Kaze (Fresh Air), an informabg大游集团on magazine for local governments, we provide varied informabg大游集团on that is useful for administrabg大游集团ve works at local governments through publicabg大游集团ons TKC Express and TKC INFORMAbg大游集团ON.
2. Adapbg大游集团ng to amendments to legislabg大游集团on: The basic policy for design and development of TKC systems is determined based on requests, proposals, and suggesbg大游集团ons made by customers in their business pracbg大游集团ces. This is based on TKC's unique idea of aiming to provide a more opbg大游集团mal system through mutual collaborabg大游集团on between customers being "business professionals", and TKC, an "ICT expert".
In case of the establishment of new legislabg大游集团on or its substanbg大游集团al amendment in parbg大游集团cular, the System Research Council is organized invibg大游集团ng administrabg大游集团ve staff in municipalibg大游集团es to discuss and study how to respond from the insbg大游集团tubg大游集团onal and technical points of view, in order to achieve a smooth transibg大游集团on. TKC, for its part, plays the role of supporbg大游集团ng the management of the research council as the organizer, and incorporates the outcomes into the system design and development acbg大游集团vibg大游集团es.
3. Organizing Seminars and Workshops: TKC organizes seminars nabg大游集团onwide, covering the latest trends of ICT, establishment and amendment of legislabg大游集团on and administrabg大游集团ve management. In addibg大游集团on, we offer individual workshops tailored to various requests from customers.