## 1 Revitalization of Regional Economies through ICT

## (3) Regional Revitalization through Regional Informatization (Relation between the Status of ICT Utilization and Regional Revitalization)

OHere, the relationship between the level of ICT utilization in each field is analyzed by means of various data. For instance, in the industry/agriculture field, the reduction rate of production agricultural earnings differs by 3 points between municipalities that intensively utilize ICT and municipalities that do not utilize ICT much. In the field of welfare/health care, there is a difference of 9.1 points in the increase rate of social assistance expenditure. Thus, a clear correlation was found between the level of ICT utilization and the increase rate in the production of agricultural earnings or the effect of the inhibitory effect on social assistance expenditure (Fig. 1-20, Fig. 1-21).

OIn terms of the percentage of municipalities that are undertaking such efforts as the disclosure of administrative information, promotion of participation by residents in administration and improving the efficiency of administrative affairs, municipalities that utilize ICT in the field of administrative services is higher than those that do not. For example, the state of disclosing preliminary drafts during the process of formulating important policies or the state of accepting and issuing various certificates at places other than government offices and branches differ by about twice in the score (Fig. 1-22, Fig. 1-23)

Fig. 1-20 Increase rate in production agricultural earnings per farming household by ICT utilization (industry/agriculture field)

Fig. 1-21 Increase rate of social assistance expenditure and budgetary spending per capita by ICT utilization (welfare/health care field)

$ ^{*} $ The data of the increase rate of social assistance expenditure per capita and the increase rate of budgetary spending per capita are based on the Study on the Settlement of Accounts by Municipalities by MIC.

(*) Social assistance expenditure includes benefits paid by municipalities based on laws and regulations as a part of the social security system and expenditures related to social benefits offered independently by the municipality (e.g., social welfare costs, elderly welfare costs, child welfare costs)

Fig. 1-22 Implementation of administrative services by ICT utilization (administrative services field)

Fig. 1-23 Current condition of rules that require answers to be provided residents' questions by ICT utilization (exchange within community field)

* The data of the state of the establishment of regulation stating answers to residents' opinions as obligatory are based on the Data of the Fifth Comparison Survey on the Administration of Municipalities throughout Japan, 2006 by the Nikkei Institute of Industry and Regional Economy.

(*) Based on the values of the ICT Utilization Index by Fields converted into deviation scores in each field, 1,175 municipalities in the industry/agriculture field, 1,748 municipalities in the welfare/health care field and 739 cities and wards in the fields of administrative services and exchange within community, are categorized into three groups by the level of ICT utilization.

From Fig. 1-20 to Fig. 1-23 (Source): Investigative Study on Regional Informatization Approaches and Regional Revitalization