The System of Policy Evaluation in Japan

Under the belief-system of bureaucratic infallibility which is epitomized by the “Duality of government” (J. Iio), a fall of trust in the bureaucracy which was caused by a series of maladministrations at the 1990s is a serious challenge to the existing regime. Seen in the context of “latent function” (R. K. Merton), the system of policy evaluation has been introduced to cope with this crisis as it is believed to have a faculty of legitimizing the bureaucracy by means of capitalizing on its renowned professionalism. This paper aims at expounding how, and to what extent, the existing system of evaluation which is characterized as “enforced self-evaluation” has measured up to such an expectation. The exposition that follows is founded basically on (1) the summary review of evaluation reports drawn up by ministries and agencies, (2) the results of a questionnaire survey conducted by Mr. Tanabe, and (3) a detailed analysis of the evaluation report produced by a particular ministry. Though it is too early to draw a conclusion in any definite form, the expectation seems to have been met to some extent, especially through the mechanism of convertibility of policy evaluation and evaluation of organization.