Two decades later, Japan still talking of online government

Pledge to go paperless faces same unenthusiastic bureaucracy

20200708N bureaucracy

Tokyo metropolitan government employees check paper applications for coronavirus-related subsidies. (Photo by Kotaro Sugimoto)

RYOHEI YASOSHIMA, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Japan's government on Wednesday pledged to move all government procedures online within a year, after the slow and troubled distribution of coronavirus support funds served as a wake-up call.

But the plan recalls a similar initiative from two decades ago that failed because of factors still plaguing Tokyo today.

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