Japan Looks To Musk’s DOGE Blueprint For Digital Transformation

President-elect Donald Trump’s new US department has not yet come to life but is already sparking the interest of a US ally in the Asia-Pacific region. The Japanese government shows great interest in how the new US Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will function and how its appointed head Tesla founder Elon Musk would bring the reforms that it promised.

Keen Interest In DOGE

Japanese minister for digital transformation Masaaki Taira expressed a keen interest in the Trump administration’s newly-established government efficiency department, saying it could be a good source of new ideas to spur the Japanese economy on course again.

Taira said that the Japanese government would “closely follow” the approach that Musk would implement in the American government efficiency department to see what they can learn from it and integrate it with the administrative reform efforts in the country.

Taira made the statement at the beginning of Japan’s “Autumn Review” on November 14 wherein state leaders are convened to evaluate the country’s programs and policies determining the direction in which the government would traverse in the future.

This year’s Autumn Review will discuss nine national programs. It includes talks on the Japanese education ministry’s scholarships for foreign students and the state reconstruction agency’s subsidies that aim to revitalize the areas in the Fukushima Prefecture which were badly devastated by the March 2011 earthquake. The massive tremor crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant run by the Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.

The ‘Ministry Of Government Efficiency’

In his address to the Autumn Review delegates, Taira revealed that he is interested in copying the steps taken by the Trump administration to boost government efficiency by creating DOGE and putting Musk as its head.

The Japanese minister expressed great interest in how the US government efficiency department would cut government spending, saying that he wants to implement similar reforms to the Japanese government.

He expected that Musk would implement “a pretty drastic approach” to cut government spending in the US, adding that he would keep an eye on the policies that the Tesla CEO would lay down to execute DOGE’s mandate.

Trump has recently appointed Musk and Roivant Sciences founder Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the government efficiency department.

The two incoming leaders of DOGE have already revealed their ambitious plan of downsizing the government workforce and reducing government.

Trump clarified that DOGE would not be an actual “department” like the Department of Homeland Security, saying that establishing a new government agency needs the approval of Congress.

He added that it would function as an “outside of government” advisory commission which would advise the federal government on how to do “large-scale structural reform”.

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