Kamiyama Town Hall: How to improve business operations with digital transformation using the Regional Revitalization Entrepreneurship Program

In Kamiyama Town, Tokushima, where Monosus has a satellite office, front-end engineer Tsunoda Taiga is currently working as a "regional revitalization entrepreneur" on business improvement digital transformation with the people at Kamiyama Town Hall.

This time, a roundtable discussion was held with Manabu Sodani, Motoaki Hirashima, and Sunami from Kamiyama Town Hall. We spoke to them about the background to the start of digital transformation at Kamiyama Town Hall, the role of entrepreneurs in revitalizing the local area, and the ongoing digital transformation to improve counter operations (titles omitted below).

*Regional Revitalization Entrepreneur Program: A system in which local governments accept employees of private companies and other organizations located in the three major metropolitan areas for a period of at least six months and up to three years, and have them use their know-how and knowledge to work on improving the unique appeal and value of the region, revitalizing the local economy, and promoting safety and security.

"Conference to consider the future of the town hall in 10 years" was a precursor to digital transformation

- First of all, please tell us about the process and background behind Kamiyama Town Hall (hereinafter referred to as the Town Hall) accepting local revitalization entrepreneurs and advancing digital transformation.

Kamiyama Town Hall: Manabu Sodani (left) and Motoyo Hirashima (right)

Kamiyama Town has been considering the 2040 problem for civil servants since 2018, and has been considering measures to review and improve town hall operations by forming a group called the "10-Year Town Hall Committee" consisting of town hall volunteers around the age of 45. There are many issues to be resolved, but the budget is tight and the population and number of employees are declining, so the town's human resources are becoming its limits. So, the idea was proposed that it would be good to bring someone with specialized knowledge into the town hall and work together with them as a "right-hand man."

The town hall is really a world of documents. I was thinking, "Wouldn't it be good to have someone to consult about paperless and IT-related problems?", and in 2021, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications renewed the Regional Revitalization Entrepreneur System and created the Regional Revitalization Entrepreneur System. Previously, Monosus' Motohashi created a "Watching Call" system at the Regional Comprehensive Support Center that converts voice (telephone) reports of elderly people watched over into text. When I consulted with Hayashi (Monosus representative), he told me that "Kakuminami-san is just about to move to Kamiyama," so we decided to have him come as a regional revitalization entrepreneur.

- What kind of work did you start out with?

Monosus Tsunan Taiga

Sunami: In projects for private companies, the client has already decided what they want to do, and we start by listening to them. However, with the city hall, we had to get one step closer to what they want to do - we had to first listen to the current situation and propose ways to improve it. As a result, the first thing we worked on was "improving the efficiency of the management of hometown tax return ledgers."

Hirashima: There are many ways to enter hometown tax donations. There is the hometown tax donation portal site "Furusato Choice", the town hall's own reception desk, and people who cannot use the internet can apply using a paper application form. Previously, application data from multiple reception desks was centralized by manually entering it into Excel. Sunami suggested that "online applications can be centralized using kintone", so we started by focusing on that.

The Planning and Coordination Department has a lot of work, and new work keeps coming in. Just getting rid of the hassle of inputting data has made things a lot easier, and I can now spend time on other tasks. Also, having had one successful experience, I started thinking, "Maybe I can automate other routine work as well."

Kamiyama Town spreads out among the mountains along the Ayukui River

The Kamiyama Town Hall General Affairs Division, where Sunami is stationed, is next to the mayor's office. "Kiero" is an eco-friendly compost made from wooden boxes (it's called "Kiero" because it makes food waste disappear).

Visiting leading municipalities in DX

--How has DX been progressing across the entire town hall?

Hirashima: After we improved the hometown tax payment process, Monosus raised the issue that "the town hall needs more fundamental digital transformation." As a result, we needed to address this issue across the entire town hall, not just the General Affairs Division, so we started a digital transformation promotion review meeting with at least one person from each division. First, we shared the question of "why digital transformation is necessary," and then Monosus introduced us to examples of local governments that are working on digital transformation.

One of these was the "no-writing one-stop service" of Kitami City in Hokkaido. Kitami City has been working to improve its service counter operations since 2009, and in 2016 built a unique service counter support system that allows procedures across multiple departments to be completed at a single service counter. In order to get a concrete image of DX, we decided to visit Kitami City. Since we were going all the way to Hokkaido, we also decided to visit Higashikawa Town, a local government that is at the forefront of landscape planning, which Kamiyama Town has also begun to work on.

--I understand that you made thorough preparations before the inspection.

Hirashima: We held about three pre-study sessions. For two consecutive years from 2018, I went to Austria with members of the town office and the Kamiyama Tsunagu Corporation, mainly from Sodani, to inspect the area. I heard that they had held detailed study sessions beforehand, so I thought I would take the same approach. It would be a waste to go there and only ask questions that you can find out by watching the media. It's better to input basic knowledge and think of questions in advance to use your time more effectively.

The town hall of Steinberg am Rophan, a farming village that I visited during a study tour of Austria in 2018. There is a cafe inside the building that is open to the local community.

- After the study session, what kind of things did you want to ask?

Hirashima: Regardless of digital transformation, the biggest hurdle when starting something new is people. People often say things like, "The normal work is difficult," or "I can't do it." Kitami City has been working on improving its service counters for 20 years, and I imagined it must have been difficult before they saw some results and the atmosphere in the city hall changed. I wanted to ask how they overcame that.

Increasing small starts

--What was the reaction of the people who took part in the tour?

Hirashima: I was especially impressed by the staff at the counter. Both Kitami City and Higashikawa Town have carefully analyzed what is needed for the town. When they think about the future of the town, they have the feeling that "we have to do this," and they have been working on it with a positive attitude and enthusiasm. Of course, I'm sure they are shedding sweat and tears behind the scenes.

Actually, it was my first time to go on an inspection tour. Since it's a town hall, the basic work doesn't change, and it's the same when you start something new and people are a hurdle. Still, when you change the place and the people working there, you can feel the difference in their way of thinking, and it's like the scenery has changed. The staff who experienced the inspection tour with me have also changed their attitudes a lot. After hearing from Kitami City that "It's okay to start small. It's okay to change anything yourself," I saw them get together about once a month after returning home and discuss "It would be good if it turned out like this," and I realized that it had resonated with me more than I thought. Since then, my values have changed to "Kamiyama Town Hall, let's go on more inspection tours!"

Kitami City Hall, visited by members of the Kamiyama Town Hall

Kitami City Hall

Argo Graphics Kitami Curling Hall

-- Mr. Kakunami, was there anything that was helpful to you as an engineer?

Sunami: At the curling facility in Kitami City, the "Argo Graphics Kitami Curling Hall," local universities and companies, including the Kitami Institute of Technology's Winter Sports Science Research Promotion Center, have collaborated to create a system to support the improvement of competitive ability. Like professional baseball and soccer leagues, this initiative uses data analysis to back up the coaches' intuition and experience and communicate them. There were university students there during our visit. The Kamiyama Marugoto College of Technology has also opened, and I think there may be a future in Kamiyama where the town office, educational institutions, and companies work together to create something.

Hirashima: I was in charge of preparing for the opening of the Kamiyama College of Technology at the town office, so I understood the idea that "if the college opens, it will expand the possibilities of Kamiyama Town." However, seeing a local government that was already putting it into practice gave me a concrete image of what I hope will happen.

Kamiyama Town launches digital transformation for customer service counters

-- After that, Kamiyama Town also started digitalizing its counter services. How is it progressing?

Shuya: Hirashima-kun was supposed to be in charge, but there was a big transfer this spring, and I'm now in charge. We completed the proposal and signed the contract in May, so from now on, the company and the town hall staff team will work together to build the counter service system, aiming for completion at the end of January 2024.

Sunami: We will be providing the basic system to Kitami Computer Business, which built Kitami City's counter support system, and tailoring it to Kamiyama Town. I will be supporting the town hall team. First, we plan to start with the Residents' Section, which handles the most procedures, and then have them interview residents and sign forms so that documents can be issued all at once. I think this will greatly reduce the burden on both residents and town officials.

Sodani: The staff at the counter are very polite and are often praised by the townspeople. I think that by improving their work, they will be able to provide even more polite service.

- Is there anything you want to do in the future related to DX?

Hirashima: The way the Planning and Coordination Section works and the way they are motivated are a little different from other sections. By leaving the General Affairs Section, I think I can spread the values and ideas that "there is another way to work". There were a lot of transfers within the building this year, so there were handover meetings here and there, and it became a situation where "I don't know who is where". I took the plunge and suggested within the section that "Let's share each other's calendars online", and about 80% of the people started using it. I think the usage rate exceeds that of the General Affairs Section (laughs).

Shutani: I want to improve the workflow and move to a paperless system. It's difficult to store documents, and they're not searchable. I think the time will come when we'll need to rebuild the building, and things will need to change by then.

Hirashima: There's no point in just having a new building, so we need to streamline the way we work and create a government building that is suited to that. There will probably be a lot of different opinions directed at the General Affairs Division, which is in charge of this, but I think that the division in charge at the time will be able to say, "This is the way we're proceeding with this philosophy," and, "It's tough right now, but if we don't get through this, things will get tough."

Tsunanami: I have three years left in my term, so I would like to complete the task of establishing a solid foundation for digital transformation.

Current Kamiyama Town Hall building

I can approach my work at the town hall as if it were my own business.

--What was it like working with people from companies under the Regional Revitalization Entrepreneur Program?

Hirashima: It was refreshing. When people from the private sector see the work of the town hall, they think, "Why are they doing it like this?" and "Can't this be changed?" What particularly made an impression on me was when Hayashi-san told me in a meeting, "If you work in the private sector with that kind of flow, you'll be fired." Kakunami-san also questioned me, "Why don't you try to change it in the first place?" For me, I've been doing things that way for a long time, I don't know any other ways, and "changing" was never an option in the first place. If you think, "Maybe it can be changed?", you can identify the hurdles to change and think of ways to overcome them. After being involved in DX for a year or two, I was able to have that perspective.

Sodani: Many of the town hall staff don't know anything about the outside world. When they see and hear about a different world, it feels really fresh and they wonder, "Why can't we do this here?" I think it's important to develop human resources who can go out of the town hall, see and learn all kinds of things, and compare them to themselves.

-- As the representative director of the Kamiyama Tsunagu Corporation, you have been promoting regional revitalization in Kamiyama Town and creating new things. How did you become a force for change?

Soya: I wonder why? Perhaps it's because I was in charge of public relations when I was young, and we saw what was happening around the NPO Green Valley, such as the Kamiyama Artist in Residence. Shinya Ominami, who was the representative director of Green Valley, is a "neighborhood uncle" from the same village, and I know all the other directors well. We were making connections with people who had moved there. When we were creating the revitalization strategy, we pulled out quite a few staff members from the town hall.

-- For you, was working at the town hall different from the projects you have worked on in the private sector?

Sunami: I think the biggest difference is that I'm a Kamiyama town resident and a "stakeholder" myself. Up until now I'd worked in web-related fields, but my work never had a direct impact on the town I live in. In my work for Kamiyama, if we improve the paperwork for hometown tax donations, the town hall staff will be happy, and if we can improve the digitalization of the counter, it will be easier for townspeople, including myself, to submit paperwork. I thought it was really interesting that it's leading to improved services for the townspeople of the town I live in.

Shuya: That's important. I work at the town hall hoping to improve our lives.

-- Thank you everyone! I'd love to hear more about it when Kamiyama Town's DX progresses to the next stage.

The roundtable discussion was held in the Sudachi conference room at Kamiyama Town Hall.