Skip to main content

Qualitative Analysis of Interviews with Municipal Officers Toward the Human-Centered Improvement of the eLen Regulation Database System

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Human-Centric Computing in a Data-Driven Society (HCC 2020)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 590))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 849 Accesses

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze results of interviews that we conducted with Japanese municipal officials who have engaged in legislative drafting and to present main issues addressed by the interviewees. Moreover, based on the results of analysis, it aims to clarify remaining problems that legislators face with during legislation, which will be necessary conditions for expanding and improving human-centered functions of e-legislation systems. Using qualitative analysis of interviews with municipal officers, this paper identifies the following four issues addressed by interviewees: (1) inconsistency among ordinances; (2) inconsistency of an ordinance; (3) insufficiency in consideration of legislative objectives and facts; (4) inadequacy of legal research. Based on the results of interview analysis, this study clarifies whether the eLen regulation database system copes with them and discusses remaining problems. Overall, it illustrates that some functions included in the eLen are helpful for diminishing those issues. However, in order to overcome the problems with which legislators face in the process of legislation, the results of this study show that it is significant to provide legislators education, such as trainings for the way to use the system and benchmarking method or for learning legislation process. Although the eLen has already implemented several instructive mechanisms, we will improve further the system so that users can learn the proper process of legislation through the usage of the system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    The respondents of surveys are as follows: City of Yokohama, Kawasaki, Sagamihara, Yokosuka, Hiratsuka, Kamakura, Fujisawa, Odawara, Chigasaki, Zushi, Miura, Hatano, Atsugi, Yamato, Isehara, Ebina, Zama, Minamiashigara, Ayase, Town of Hayama, Samukawa, Ooiso, Ninomiya, Nakai, Ooi, Matsuda, Yamakita, Kaisei, Hakone, Manazuru, Yugawara, Aikawa and Village of Kiyokawa. Although an interview and questionnaire were also conducted with the Kanagawa Prefectural Government during the same survey period, the results have been excluded due to many differences between prefectures and other scales of municipalities. In addition, respondents’ comments are not representative of the municipality’s views, but their opinions. The municipality’s names are hidden in this paper, since some of them would not like to disclose their names.

  2. 2.

    The sentence in a bracket was inserted by the authors for giving a supplementary explanation of the remark of the interviewee.

  3. 3.

    The extended version of the eLen can automatically create a template by extracting common parts from similar regulations clustered by AI. In the template, different parts of regulations are shown as blanks and users can select one of choices to complete the regulation. If you change clustered groups, various templates can be automatically created by the eLen.

References

  1. Nakamura, M., Kakuta, T.: Development of the eLen regulation database to support legislation of municipalities. In: Proceedings of International JURIX 2014 Conference, pp. 185–186 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kakuta, T., Shima, A., Saito, D., Otani, T.: Zenkoku jichitai reiki database eLen no kouchiku to teiryouteki reikichosa [Development of eLen database for regulations of the local governments and a quantitative survey of the regulations]. Inf. Netw. Law Rev. 13, 14–33 (2014). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  3. Shima, A., Kakuta, T.: Jichitai reiki sakuseiji niokeru tareiki no sanshou ni kansuru chosahoukoku: kanagawa kennaino zenshichoson wo sanpuru nishite [Report on the legislative drafting work compared with other regulations in municipalities: a sample survey on municipalities in Kanagawa prefecture]. Nagoya J. Law Polit. 259, 383–409 (2014). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  4. Shimazu, A.: Hourei kougaku: anshin na shakai shisutemu sekkei notameno houhouron: houreibunsho no kaiseki wo chushin ni [Legal engineering: methodology for designing trustworthy social systems: legal document analysis]. IEICE Found. Rev. 5, 320–328 (2012). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kakuta, T.: e-Legislation kankyo no kouchiku he mukete: jouhoukagaku wo ouyou shita rippoukatei no sagyousien [Toward developing e-Legislation environment: supporting law-making works based on information science]. Inf. Net. Law Rev. 11, 13–32 (2012). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hasegawa, T.: Nigen daihyou no seisaku rippouryoku bunseki [Comparison of legislative abilities between tops of local government and members of assemblies]. Koukyouseisakukenkyu 17, 108–119 (2017). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  7. Katou, Y., Hiramatsu, H.: Giin jourei shuran [The collection of ordinances enacted by assembly members]. Koujinsha, Tokyo (2011). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  8. Makise, M.: Kata kara surasura kakeru anata no machi no seisaku jourei [Let’s try to draft an ordinance to implement policies in your city: using templates]. Daiichihoki, Tokyo (2017). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  9. Kitamura, Y., Yamaguchi, M., Izuishi, M., Isozaki, H.: Jichitai seisaku houmu [Legal work for implement of policies in municipalities]. Yuhikaku, Tokyo (2011). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gyoseihouseishitsumukenkyukai: Houseisitsumu nyumon [Introduction to legislative drafting with illustrations]. Gyosei, Tokyo (2013). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  11. Diamond Harvard Business Review: Benchmarking no riron to jissen [Theories and practices of benchmarking]. Diamond, Tokyo (1995). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  12. Tanaka, H.: Jichitaihyouka niokeru benchmarking no kanousei: beikoku no torikumi ga shisasuru mono [Future prospects of benchmarking in local government evaluation: the implications of practice in the United States]. Jpn. J. Eval. Stud. 11(2), 3–12 (2011). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  13. Tanaka, T.: Jourei zukuri eno chousen [Challenge of drafting ordinances by using benchmarking method]. Shinzanshashuppan, Tokyo (2002). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

  14. Tanaka, T.: Jichirippou no shuhou [Methods of autonomous legislation]. In: Kisa, S. (ed.) Jichirippou no riron to shuhou [Theories and Methods of Autonomous Legislation], pp. 203–211. Gyosei, Tokyo (1998). [in Japanese]

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by SECOM Science and Technology Foundation and JST, CREST, Grant Number JPMJCR1782, Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aki Shima .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Shima, A., Kakuta, T. (2020). Qualitative Analysis of Interviews with Municipal Officers Toward the Human-Centered Improvement of the eLen Regulation Database System. In: Kreps, D., Komukai, T., Gopal, T.V., Ishii, K. (eds) Human-Centric Computing in a Data-Driven Society. HCC 2020. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 590. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62803-1_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62803-1_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-62802-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-62803-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics