Dissemination of Government Statistical Micro Data and Policy Challenges for Japanese Statistical System

It was as early as 1960s when some countries such as the United States and United Kingdom have released anonymized resampled micro data created from censuses and surveys followed by Canada and some Nordic countries. Many analytical findings with micro based data have carved out new frontiers not only in academic research but also in their policy use that traditional table-based analyses could never promise. In addition to the enormous contributions in offering academic findings, micro data have created new dimensions in terms of potential usability of statistical data. New types of datasets such as longitudinal and panel data created from individual records have cultivated a new arena of dynamic data analysis that neither cross sectional nor time series data could afford. Japan is far behind other foreign countries in terms of the use of micro data. Government has been hesitant in creating public use micro data files in Japan due partly to the apprehensions for the potential threat of privacy issues and partly to the conventional practice of data enclosure within institutions. Governments\u27 negative responses to the disclosure of micro data have also been supported by the strict application of confidentiality clause stipulated in Japanese Statistics Law. During a couple of decades after 1980, however, many countries which appeared to be new member countries with public use micro data files have amended their legislative frameworks one afteranother so as to adjust confidentiality clause with launching systems to provide public use micr data files. This paper aims to bring to the light the impending challenge of Japanese statistical system