TOKYO: Japan’s digital transformation minister Takuya Hirai said Friday that he aims to create in 2021 an envisaged government agency tasked with playing a central role in promoting digitization of Japanese society.

“I want to get it started next year,” he said in an internet program. Hirai showed plans to submit necessary legislation to next year’s regular session of the Diet, the country’s parliament, to be convened in January.

The establishment of the agency is one of key policy measures of new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who assumed the post and launched his cabinet on Wednesday.

Staff employees of the agency will be picked through a public recruitment process in principle, Hirai said, suggesting plans to actively hire private-sector people, including for its top post. “Ultimately, the new agency may need no physical offices,” he added.

On Wednesday, the government will hold the first meeting of a ministerial council on digital reforms participated by Suga and all his cabinet ministers, launching full-fledged work on establishing the proposed digital agency.

Hirai will hold talks on the matter with working-level officials of the Cabinet Secretariat on Saturday.

JIJI Press