Japan looks to learn from Elon Musk’s US government efficiency programme
A Japanese government minister has said that he would look to learn lessons from Elon Musk’s efforts to improve government efficiency.
Last week it was announced that entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US.
According to US president-elect Donald Trump, the review will pave the way for his administration to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies”.
He called the initiative “the Manhattan Project of our time”, referring to the American programme to develop the first atomic bomb.
Despite the name, DOGE will not be a formal government agency but will work “from outside government” to provide “advice and guidance” to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before”.
It will “send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people”, said Musk, who is one of the world’s richest people and whose companies include social media platform X (formerly Twitter), electric vehicle company Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink.
Musk claimed at a rally in October that at least US$2 trillion could be cut from the federal budget, almost a third of federal government spending.
Read more: Trump picks Elon Musk to co-lead government efficiency drive
Japan to learn from DOGE’s work
The initiative has been picked up by Japanese administrative reform minister Masaaki Taira, who in comments last week said that he would look to learn lessons from the efficiency drive.
Speaking during a review of national programmes being undertaken by the new minority government, Taira said he would “closely follow the approach and incorporate it into our administrative reform efforts”.
After an election this year, the incumbent Liberal Democratic party lost ground but retained power in a minority coalition government with the Komeito party.
Taira also said the government’s current fiscal health makes it urgently necessary to efficiently use limited resources. “We should improve convenience for citizens and improve administrative efficiency in an integrated way,” he said.
A review of government programmes in Japan is examining nine major schemes, including the education ministry’s scholarships for foreign students and the Reconstruction Agency’s subsidies for revitalising areas in Fukushima Prefecture hit hard by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Read more: What Trump’s presidency means for AI
DOGE vacancies
A post on X last week from a new Department of Government Efficiency account said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
The post urged those interested to direct message the account with their CV.
“Elon and Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants,” it said.
Musk followed up with a post saying: “Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lots of enemies and compensation is zero. What a great deal!”
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer rights organisation, called the announcement about Musk and Ramaswamy leading the DOGE initiative “laughable”.
“Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack,” co-president Lisa Gilbert said.
About Richard Johnstone
Richard Johnstone is the executive editor of Global Government Forum, where he helps to produce editorial analysis and insight for the title’s audience of public servants around the world. Before joining GGF, he spent nearly five years at UK-based title Civil Service World, latterly as acting editor, and has worked in public policy journalism throughout his career.
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