The Public Service Reform Promotion Office at Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is asking private companies and local governments which public services they think the private sector could run better. The call, dated 6 October 2026, feeds a revision of the Basic Policy for Public Service Reform that the office plans for 2027.
Four kinds of proposal
The office will accept opinions in four categories. Private operators can name work now done by national bodies or local governments that they believe they could take on, along with any measures the government should take to make that possible. They can also flag work national bodies have already outsourced where a market test would, in their view, improve competition. Local governments can identify their own operations they consider suitable to hand to the private sector, again with the measures they want from the government. A fourth category covers anything else concerning the basic policy.
The office's template shows the expected level of detail: a specific business or task, a reason, and evidence such as private firms already doing similar work or an outsourcing arrangement whose scope could be reopened. Submitters are asked to be as specific as they can about the task.
What counts as a national body
The call defines national administrative bodies broadly. They include ministries and agencies, independent administrative agencies, national university corporations, inter-university research institute corporations and special corporations. For joint-stock special corporations, only Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Japan Finance Corporation are covered. The National Personnel Authority and the Board of Audit are outside the scheme, as are the Diet and the courts.
Market testing, briefly
The underlying law on public service reform through the introduction of competition lets the government put selected services out to competitive bidding. In public-private competitive bidding, government and private firms compete. In private competitive bidding, only private firms do. The stated aims are better service quality and lower costs. A monitoring committee takes part in drafting the implementation guidelines, which set out bid specifications.
The law requires the government to hear from private operators and local governments when it drafts or changes the basic policy, citing Article 7, paragraphs 3, 5 and 9. This round is a voluntary public comment, not a procedure under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Deadline and process
The window runs from 6 October to 4 November 2026, closing at 23:59 on the last day. Comments can be filed through the e-Gov portal, by email using the office's form converted to PDF, or by post to the office in Nagatacho, Tokyo. The office does not confirm receipt by email or post and asks anyone wanting confirmation to phone.
Comments will go through coordination with relevant agencies and deliberation by the monitoring committee before the office considers reflecting them in the basic policy. The office plans to publish the comments and the relevant agencies' replies on its website. It may also publish submitters' names, though individuals' names are withheld and anonymity can be requested.
The notice contains no draft revisions or list of candidate services, so what changes in 2027 depends on what comes back.