• The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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• no.45
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• pp.219-253
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• 2015

The Records Management System in Japan has been developed to a comprehensive and unitary records management system based on the records life-cycle principle from the enactment of 'the Public Records and Archives Management Act' in 2009 and its implementation in April, 2011. The scope of objects has also been extended to documents of independent administrative institutions and specific confidential documents on diplomacy and defense. In addition, a series of Electronic Documents Management Systems have been built for the transfer of electronic records to the National Archives of Japan, which is called the Electronic Records Archives of Japan, in connection with the records and archives management systems covering creation, management, transfer, preservation, and use of electronic records. This paper deals with the core contents and characteristics of the records management system of Japan, focusing on the operational structure of the records and archives management law and electronic documents management. Firstly, The Cabinet Office and professional groups in records and archives management started to work on reformation of the records management system from 2003 and resulted in enactment of the Public Records and Archives Management Act in 2009. In that sense, the Public Records and Archives Management Act can be evaluated as a result of constant activities of the records management community in Japan for realization of accountabilities of government agencies to the general public. Secondly, the Public Records Management Act of Japan has a coherent multi-layer structure from the law, enforcement ordinances, guidelines, and to institutional documents management regulations in the operational system. This is a systematic structure for providing practical business units of each administrative agency with detailed standards on the basis of guidelines and making them to prepare their own specific application standards related to their unique businesses. Unlike the past, the National Archives of Japan became to be able to identify specific historial documents which should be transferred to the archives by selecting important historical records as early as possible after creating and receiving them in each institution through the retention schedule. Thirdly, Japan started to operate a system in regard to electronic records transfer and preservation in 2011. In order to prepare for it, each administrative agency has used EDMS in creation and management of electronic records. A Guideline for the Standard Format and Media released by the Cabinet Office in 2010 is also for the transfer of electronic records to the Electronic Records Archives of Japan. In future, it is necessary to conduct further studies on activities of the records and archives management community in Japan, relating to long-term preservation and use of electronic records.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.3-49
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• 2014

Growing interest of stakeholders on corporate responsibilities for environment and tightening environmental regulations are highlighting the importance of environmental management more than ever. However, companies' awareness of the importance of environment is still falling behind, and related academic works have not shown consistent conclusions on the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance. One of the reasons is different ways of measuring these two performances. The evaluation scope of economic performance is relatively narrow and the performance can be measured by a unified unit such as price, while the scope of environmental performance is diverse and a wide range of units are used for measuring environmental performances instead of using a single unified unit. Therefore, the results of works can be different depending on the performance indicators selected. In order to resolve this problem, generalized and standardized performance indicators should be developed. In particular, the performance indicators should be able to cover the concepts of both environmental and economic performances because the recent idea of environmental management has expanded to encompass the concept of sustainability. Another reason is that most of the current researches tend to focus on the motive of environmental investments and environmental performance, and do not offer a guideline for an effective implementation strategy for environmental management. For example, a process improvement strategy or a market discrimination strategy can be deployed through comparing the environment competitiveness among the companies in the same or similar industries, so that a virtuous cyclical relationship between environmental and economic performances can be secured. A novel method for measuring eco-efficiency by utilizing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is able to combine multiple environmental and economic performances, is proposed in this report. Based on the eco-efficiencies, the environmental competitiveness is analyzed and the optimal combination of inputs and outputs are recommended for improving the eco-efficiencies of inefficient firms. Furthermore, the panel analysis is applied to the causal relationship between eco-efficiency and economic performance, and the pooled regression model is used to investigate the relationship between eco-efficiency and economic performance. The four-year eco-efficiencies between 2010 and 2013 of 23 companies are obtained from the DEA analysis; a comparison of efficiencies among 23 companies is carried out in terms of technical efficiency(TE), pure technical efficiency(PTE) and scale efficiency(SE), and then a set of recommendations for optimal combination of inputs and outputs are suggested for the inefficient companies. Furthermore, the experimental results with the panel analysis have demonstrated the causality from eco-efficiency to economic performance. The results of the pooled regression have shown that eco-efficiency positively affect financial perform ances(ROA and ROS) of the companies, as well as firm values(Tobin Q, stock price, and stock returns). This report proposes a novel approach for generating standardized performance indicators obtained from multiple environmental and economic performances, so that it is able to enhance the generality of relevant researches and provide a deep insight into the sustainability of environmental management. Furthermore, using efficiency indicators obtained from the DEA model, the cause of change in eco-efficiency can be investigated and an effective strategy for environmental management can be suggested. Finally, this report can be a motive for environmental management by providing empirical evidence that environmental investments can improve economic performance.