Overview
The Role of Evidence-Based Policy Making in Shaping Japan’s Future
Japan currently faces numerous serious social and economic challenges. Institutional reforms essential for Japan’s future—such as implementing child-rearing and nursing care support to counter the declining birthrate amid financial constraints; promoting labor participation among older adults; ensuring equal educational opportunities and preventing widening inequality; maintaining high-quality healthcare and nursing services while curbing rising medical and care costs; and improving living environments in aging regions—all require evidence-based policy making (EBPM). These challenges demand the full application of economic expertise in collaboration with other academic disciplines.
To conduct effective policy evaluation, which underpins EBPM, the evaluating entity must possess both advanced technical capacity and independence from the policy-implementing body. If either condition is lacking, empirical results become unreliable. The Center for Research and Education in Program Evaluation at the University of Tokyo was established to fulfill these requirements. We conduct research and practice in policy making through empirical analysis and provide education grounded in practical application.
Our Center’s analyses cover not only quantitative measures such as consumption tax rate changes or tuition fee elimination but also structural reforms, including tax system redesign and auction system implementation. Furthermore, rather than limiting itself to ex-post evaluations of whether reforms have met policy goals, we also examine how individual policies affect broader socioeconomic dynamics beyond their immediate targets. We conduct theoretical and empirical analyses of diverse policies, focusing on the objectives we aim to achieve, and accumulate knowledge about which policies are effective under specific conditions. Thus, we seek to advance a comprehensive form of policy evaluation that extends beyond conventional approaches.
To realize this mission, we aim to advance societal outcomes through collaboration with government agencies, local authorities, and the private sector. We strive to enhance data quality and accessibility; demonstrate, through concrete examples, our ability to conduct robust empirical and theoretical policy evaluations; and cultivate highly skilled professionals capable of conducting such analyses. Through these efforts, we seek to solidify the foundation of EBPM in Japan.
The Activities To Be Conducted by CREPE
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
- Conducting research on policy evaluation.
- Promoting joint research by inviting domestic and foreign researchers.
- Providing support for the application for and the administration of “Kakenhi” scientific research grants.
- Publishing the Center for Research and Education in Program Evaluation Discussion Papers.
- Identifying research topics through exchange of opinions with the institutions in charge of implementing policies, and giving feedback regarding our research results to the concerned parties.
- Gathering diverse data through collaboration with governmental agencies and local government bodies, and promoting research using those data.
- Managing the necessary confidential data while promoting the above research.
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
- Inviting top researchers in the fields that are the subject of the center’s interest to teach intensive courses and at the same time, giving our graduate students an opportunity to present their own research on such occasions, so that they can hear the opinion of the visiting scholar.
- Helping exceptional graduate students by granting them scholarships.
- Conducting practical training by having undergraduate and graduate students assist the researchers affiliated with our center with their research on policy evaluation.
- Offering opportunities for training through joint research with the employees of governmental agencies and local government bodies.