Speaking Danish in Japan: Good practice lessons to learn and emulate (Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen – http://www.flickr.com/photos/40451858@N04/6993025986/in/pool-1909773@N24/)

1. SPEAKING DANISH IN JAPAN
How Japan can learn from Danish best practice
Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen (meyer@digst.dk)
Danish Agency for Digitisation (www.digst.dk)
CeDEM 2012, 30 april 2012

2. OUTLINING A CONUNDRUM
Japan has a…
…well-developed broadband infrastructure
86.5% of households having fiber-to-home access*
…but low levels of take-up
11.7% of companies used a national eGovernment service (national level)**
13.2% of Japanese access government website or used an online service**
0.0000021% of address change (pension) are online***
* (OECD, 2009a)
** (Goto & Sudo, 2008)
*** (MIC, 2012)

3. COMPARING THE CONUNDRUM
Denmark has a…
…well-developed broadband infrastructure
86% of households have internet but only 14.6% have fiber-to-home access*
…and HIGH levels of take-up
92% of companies use the internet to interact with government**
67% of Danes use the internet to interact with government**
40-60% of address changes are online (municipality dependent) ***
c. 25% of all service transactions are online (35 selected municipality services) ***
* OECD, 2009a and Eurostat 2011
** Eurostat, 2010
*** Komhen, 2012

4. SOME STATISTICS
Category Denmark Japan Source
Subcategory (ranking) (ranking)
Infrastructure
FTTH/B availability (%) 14 (a) 4 86.5 1 OECD 2009a
Fiber connections in total broadband (%) 13 6 61 1 OECD 2011 (b)
Fastest advertised connection offered by the 51 Mbps - 1Gbps - OECD 2011 (b)
incumbent operator MIC 2009
Avg, advertised broadband download speed (Kbit/s) 25,771 18 80,612 3 OECD 2011 (b/c)
Median price per 1mbps (USD) 2.27 10 0.39 1 OECD 2011 (b/d)
3G coverage (%) 97 6 100 1 OECD 2011 (b)
ICT usage
Estimated internet users per 100 inhabitants (%) 82 6 75.4 16 ITU 2008
Online availability of gov’t services (%, individuals) 75 - - Eurostat 2010
Cabinet Secretariat 2010a
Online availability of gov’t services (%, businesses) 100 - 52 -
Public Certification Service for Individuals (%) 24 - 1 - MIC 2010b
Basic data
Population (million) 5.5 - 126.5 - United Nations 2010
GDP per capita (US$) 55,986 6 42,783 17 IMF 2010

5. INSTITUTIONAL DIFFERENCES
NATIONAL STRATEGIES
JP: Transition to ICT usage/utilisation with
emphasis on broadband infrastructure
DK: Focus on a consistent eGovernment system. Emphasis convenience,
efficiency and effectiveness, key infrastructure and components (eg
standards, eIDs, Single-Sign-On), platforms (eg portals, shared services)
ICT-PROMOTION MECHANISMS
JP: Weak IT Strategic Headquarters
DK: STS and strategy committees, Agency for (Cabinet Secretariat). Vertical
Digitisation, cross-organisational initiatives in
consultation with other national stakeholders. structure contributing to weak
Existence of ICT-promoting mechanisms in collaboration. Weak ICT-promoting
different fields, eg national portals borger.dk, mechanisms in each field
virk.dk, sundhed.dk and campaigns

6. INSTITUTIONAL DIFFERENCES
PERSONAL INFORMATION
JP: Protection by laws. Strong
DK: Protection by laws and the Data discomfort with the personal
Protection Agency. Trust in agencies information protection system. No
neutral agency
DECENTRALISATION OF GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY
DK: Highly advanced, also in budgetary aspects
JP: Little progress
POLICY-MAKING PROCESS
DK: Consensus/mixed top-down and bottom-up
JP: Weak consensus/top-down
INCENTIVE POLICIES
JP: Handful of incentives for digitisation
DK: Clear incentives and semi- and semi-mandatory measures
mandatory measures

7. CONTRIBUTING TO INFRASTRUCTURE
UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS AND INDENTITY MANAGEMENT*
DK: Personal ID/CPR since 1968. Cooperation
with the private sector; Corporate ID/CVR in
operation; Property ID/BBR in operation JP: Discussion on personal ID
ongoing but aim for 2013
introduction. Corporate and
DIGITAL SIGNATURE property IDs not unified
DK: c. 3.7 million active personal - simple three factor
authentication - digital signature with an ID, password, and keycard
Professional/corporate - software based but with simple three
factor authentication being developed for roll-out in 2012
NB: Smartphone version expected in 2012 JP: Personal - emphasis on
security. Not widely adopted,
hardware reliance, not user-friendly
Professional/corporate do not exist

8. SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
DK: Business case, user-centric,
private sector inspired, testing,
JP: Technology-oriented.
participatory design Ideas from developers
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT - VENDORS
DK: Initiatives taken by Local Government
Denmark (KOMBIT /Umbrella projects) for JP: Competition among four companies
joint development and/or procurement Slow in standardisation
(past KMD set-up and owned by
municipalities). Limited competition
SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION
DK: In-house. Accumulation of know-how
In-source expertise, out-source development
JP: Reliance on manufacturers and vendors

9. INFLUENCING FACTORS
BUSINESS RELATIONS
DK = cooperation with the private sector vs JP = low levels of cooperation
THE MARKET
DK = demand-pull vs JP = supply-push
UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
DK = regarded as a source of competitiveness vs JP = considered of little relevance
RISK ADVERSITY*
DK = tendency to try to change risks into investment opportunities vs JP = risk-averse and emphasis on safe measures
ENGAGEMENT
DK = high level (c 85% voting rate) vs JP = medium level (c 60% voting rate)
* Symantec, 2009

10. CONCLUSIONS
Key efficiency lessons from the Danish
context incl:
– Governance model and inter-agency
collaboration to achieve strategic goals
– Standards, standardised formats and
processes
– Share components and contents, incl key
enablers like IDs and digital signatures
– User-centric and personalised services,
testing and participatory design

11. FOR QUESTIONS
Noriko Igari (n.igari@glocom.ac.jp)
GLOCOM - Center for Global Communication (www.glocom.ac.jp)
International University of Japan
Morten Meyerhoff Nielsen (meyer@digst.dk)
Danish Agency for Digitisation (www.digst.dk)