Page 27 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS178 Kuniko M.

[Table 1] Basic Principles for statistics at the Bank of Japan
1. Provision of accurate and appropriate statistics
2. Improvement of convenience for user of statistics
3. Enhancement of transparency
4. Reduction of the burden on reporting firms and provision of detailed
explanations to obtain their cooperation with the survey
5. Maintenance of strict confidentiality in data management
6. Rationalization of and improvement in the efficiency of operations for compiling
statistics
7. Mutual cooperation and appropriate sharing of roles with relevant
organizations such as administrative bodies
Three (No. 1, 2, and 3) of the above seven Basic Principles refer to the
improvement of statistics quality from the various user perspectives. The third
principle (No. 3) is the enhancement of transparency, comprising three points:
(1) making public the rules pertaining to the methods of release; (2) promptly
releasing any corrections to statistics; and (3) listening to a variety of external
opinions regarding the substantial revision of statistics. As in (3), when making
substantial revisions to BOJ statistics, the Bank announces the revision
contents in advance in order to receive opinions and comments from a broad
range of users and reporting entities. In practice, however, it is often difficult
for the Bank to incorporate all the opinions and requests it receives, for various
reasons. Even in such cases, the Bank discloses these opinions and requests,
as well as its reaction to them, in order to increase the transparency of the
consultation process.

2-2. Recent improvements of statistics compiled by the Bank of Japan
In recent times, the Bank has made improvements to a variety of statistics,
and continues to work on them, as shown in Table 2.

14 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9