--- title: "Digital Agency Establishment Act: Duties and Orders" description: "Explains Digital Agency Establishment Act rules on duties, jurisdictional affairs, leadership posts, council structure, and Digital Agency Orders." date: 2026-05-27 category: Law Commentary tags: [Digital Law, Government] draft: false --- The [Act on the Establishment of the Digital Agency](https://elaws.jp/view/503AC0000000036) establishes the Digital Agency in the Cabinet and defines its duties, affairs under jurisdiction, organization, council structure, and rulemaking form. It is consulted when a reader needs to distinguish the Digital Agency's institutional role from the broader principles in the Basic Act on the Formation of a Digital Society. This article explains the Act's organization and authority provisions as verified on e-Gov Law Search and Japanese Law Translation, but it does not describe current personnel assignments, project status, or individual system operations. ## Establishment, Duties, and Policy Coordination The Act starts with the reason for establishing the Digital Agency and the agency's place in the national government. Articles 1, 2, and 3 set that foundation before Article 4 lists detailed affairs. Article 1 states that the purpose of the Act is to provide for the establishment of the Digital Agency and its duties, the well-defined scope of affairs under its jurisdiction necessary to achieve those duties, and organizational matters necessary for efficiently executing administrative affairs under its jurisdiction. Article 2 then provides the basic institutional placement: the Digital Agency is established in the Cabinet. This differs from ordinary ministries and agencies organized under the National Government Organization Act, and Article 5 later confirms a coordination role across the Cabinet Office and administrative organs of the State. Article 3 defines the Digital Agency's duties in two parts. First, the Digital Agency assists the affairs of the Cabinet concerning the formation of a digital society together with the Cabinet Secretariat, in accordance with the basic principles in Chapter II of the Basic Act on the Formation of a Digital Society. Second, the Digital Agency endeavors to swiftly and intensively enforce administrative affairs concerning the formation of a digital society based on those basic principles. This structure connects the establishment Act to the Basic Act: the Basic Act supplies the definition and principles of digital society, while the establishment Act gives the Digital Agency its institutional mission. Article 5 adds that the Digital Agency must evaluate, plan, and draft its own policies under the supervision of the Cabinet. It also requires mutual coordination and communication with the Cabinet Office and the administrative organs of the State defined in Article 1 of the National Government Organization Act, and requires the Digital Agency to fulfill all its administrative functions in an integrated manner. This provision is the Act's internal coordination rule for how the Digital Agency works across government. ## Affairs Under the Digital Agency's Jurisdiction Article 4 lists the affairs under the Digital Agency's jurisdiction. The list is long, but its structure separates policy-unification affairs from execution-oriented affairs. Article 4(1) assigns affairs necessary for promoting policy uniformity among administrative branches with the aim of achieving the first duty stated in Article 3. Those affairs include planning, design, and general coordination of basic principles concerning policies for the formation of a digital society. They also include promoting policies for the formation of a digital society taken by relevant administrative organs, excluding specified cybersecurity-policy promotion affairs under the Basic Act on Cybersecurity. Article 4(1) further includes planning, design, and general coordination concerning policies for the formation of a digital society. Article 4(2) assigns affairs for achieving the second duty stated in Article 3. It includes creation and promotion of the priority policy program on the formation of a digital society and the Basic Plan for the Advancement of Public and Private Sector Data Utilization. It also includes planning, design, and promotion of basic and comprehensive policies for using numbers, codes, or other marks to identify individuals, corporations, or other organizations in administrative procedures. Article 4(2) further covers affairs connected with individual numbers, individual number cards, corporate numbers, and the information providing network system, subject to exclusions for matters under other ministries' jurisdiction. Article 4(2) also assigns several specific digital-administration fields. These include information systems used by national administrative organs, electronic signatures and electronic user certificates connected with local authority information systems, public benefits account-registration matters, management of deposit and savings accounts using personal numbers based on depositor intent, and other affairs listed in the same paragraph. Because Article 4 is a jurisdictional provision, it identifies the Digital Agency's charge of affairs; it does not itself set the full substantive requirements of each related program or system. ## Prime Minister, Minister, and Senior Digital Posts Chapter III sets the Digital Agency's organizational structure. Articles 6 through 12 identify the head of the Digital Agency and special positions established within it. Article 6 states that the Prime Minister is the head of the Digital Agency. Article 7 then gives the Prime Minister authority to control and supervise the affairs of the Digital Agency as its head. The same article provides that, with regard to the administrative affairs under the charge of the Digital Agency, the Prime Minister may issue a Digital Agency Order as an order of the Digital Agency to enforce a law or Cabinet Order, or based on a special delegation by laws or Cabinet Orders. Article 7(4) limits Digital Agency Orders: without delegation by law, they may not establish penal provisions, impose obligations, or restrict citizens' rights. Article 8 establishes the Minister for Digital Transformation. The Minister for Digital Transformation assists the Prime Minister and takes charge of the affairs of the Digital Agency as ordered. Article 9 establishes State Ministers in the Digital Agency, and Article 10 establishes Parliamentary Vice-Ministers. These posts follow the Act's choice to place the Digital Agency in the Cabinet while giving it ministerial and parliamentary support roles for its affairs. Article 11 establishes the Chief Officer of Digital Agency. The Chief Officer assists the Prime Minister and the Minister for Digital Transformation, organizes the affairs of the Digital Agency, and supervises the affairs of relevant sections and organs. Article 12 establishes the Vice-Minister for Digital Policy. The Vice-Minister for Digital Policy assists the Prime Minister, the Minister for Digital Transformation, and the Chief Officer of Digital Agency, and coordinates designated important policies and affairs. Article 13 allows positions necessary for handling Digital Agency affairs to be established, with the number and duties specified by Cabinet Order. ## Digital Society Promotion Council The Act also establishes a Digital Society Promotion Council inside the Digital Agency. Articles 14 and 15 define its placement, affairs, and organization. Article 14 establishes the Digital Society Promotion Council in the Digital Agency. The Council handles matters concerning coordination and promotion of important strategies for forming a digital society, based on the basic principles in the Basic Act on the Formation of a Digital Society. It also handles other matters assigned by law. This makes the Council an internal coordination organ for digital-society strategy rather than a separate ministry or external commission. Article 15 provides the Council's organization. The Council is composed of a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and members. The Prime Minister serves as chairperson, and the Minister for Digital Transformation serves as vice-chairperson. Members include other persons specified in Article 15. Article 15 also provides that the chairperson presides over Council affairs, that the vice-chairperson assists the chairperson, and that if the chairperson is unable to perform duties, the vice-chairperson acts on behalf of the chairperson. These provisions identify who leads the Council but do not themselves set the content of every policy item the Council may coordinate. Article 16 delegates necessary matters concerning the Council beyond those provided in the Act to Cabinet Order. This delegation sits inside the organization chapter and concerns Council operation and related organizational details. It should be read together with Article 14's definition of the Council's affairs and Article 15's composition rule. ## Digital Agency Orders and Related Miscellaneous Rules The Act's miscellaneous provisions explain how Digital Agency Orders interact with other rulemaking forms and how existing legal references are handled. Articles 17 and 18 are short, but they prevent uncertainty about the new agency's order-making authority. Article 17 states that, where a law or Cabinet Order refers to an order of the relevant ministry in relation to affairs under the jurisdiction of the Digital Agency, that reference is deemed to include a Digital Agency Order unless otherwise provided. This is a technical but practical rule: it allows existing statutory language referring to ministry orders to work for Digital Agency affairs after the agency's establishment. Article 18 then provides that necessary transitional measures concerning establishment of the Digital Agency may be specified by Cabinet Order. This type of provision does not itself describe every transitional step; it delegates the necessary transitional rules to Cabinet Order. The article is paired with the supplementary provisions, which address the Act's enforcement and related transitional matters. The result is that the establishment Act supplies both the permanent institutional rules and a mechanism for handling the legal transition to the new agency structure.