Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > Japanese Government Policies in Education, Science, Sports and Culture 2000 > Part 1 Chapter 3 Section 6 1

The new central ministerial structure will be put in place as of January 2001 with a view to making national administration simpler and more efficient and contributing to the formation of a more free and fair society. As a part of this reorganization, the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture will be merged with the Science and Technology Agency to form the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The status of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, as the agency attached to the ministry charged with the responsibility for policy planning, will remain the same as in the past.

In the Founding Law of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Agency for Cultural Affairs is charged with the responsibility to "promote culture and international cultural exchanges and carry out administration on religious matters appropriately." In order to achieve this, the Agency for Cultural Affairs is planning to create an International Division to promote international cultural exchanges and to develop an organization to further promote international copyright policies. In addition, the Agency for Cultural Affairs is planning to strengthen efforts to promote art museums and history museums.

Also, the status of the National Museum, the National Art Museum, the National Language Research Institute and the National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, which were previously facilities and institutions attached to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, will change to Independent Administrative Institutions (IAIs) starting in April 2001. By this change, it is expected that each agency's independence and freedom will be enhanced through the flexible management of accounting systems that enable agencies to introduce external funds and through the legal limitation of supervision and involvements in the management of IAIs by the Minister in charge. However, these IAIs are not supposed to be financially self-sufficient, and the government will adopt appropriate budgetary measures.