tokyo

Japanese ministries and agencies that do not cooperate with the government's planned administrative reform, including the restructuring of national research institutes and universities, could open such organizations to substantial budget cuts in the next fiscal year as a penalty.

This warning was delivered last week by Hiromu Nonaka, the chief cabinet secretary, in announcing the details of the interim report on administrative reform, which includes recommendations to transform government-run organizations into semi-autonomous bodies.

The reform plan has met strong opposition from ministries and agencies. In particular, national research institutes and universities have shown concern about the effect of such reorganization on the quality of their research (see Nature 395, 730; 1998 ). The interim report also describes their concerns over the difficulty of transforming all the targeted organizations into new corporations with administrative independence.

Frustrated by the ministries' lack of enthusiasm for implementing the plan, Keizo Obuchi, Japan's prime minister, has now told the Management and Coordination Agency to take firm action against institutions resisting the reform plan by imposing a 30 per cent cut on their budgets for the fiscal year 1999, which begins next April.

“At the moment, there is no feeling of enthusiasm among ministries and agencies to carry out a drastic reorganization of their administrative systems,” Nonaka said at a press conference last week. “It is therefore necessary to take strong action in order to push through with the planned reform.”

The administrative reform plan is also starting to attract criticism from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Some LDP politicians, including those involved in administrative reform, are calling for the plan to be postponed so they can prioritize plans to improve the nation's ailing economy.

At a party meeting last week, members of the LDP's administrative reform committee expressed concern about the lack of progress in plans to revive the Japanese economy, arguing that too much effort has been spent on the planned restructuring of government ministries and agencies.

The government hopes to finalize its reorganization plans by next January, but many are predicting considerable delays in the wake of the criticisms of Obuchi's reform efforts.