Working Party on the Application of New Technology to Population Data
Second Meeting
1-3 April 1998
Singapore

1. Outline of the Web Site of the Statistics Bureau
2. Accesses to the Web Site of the Statistics Bureau
3. Dissemination of the Population Census Data
4. Future Direction

1. Overview
   The Statistics Bureau, Management and Coordination Agency has been providing statistical information through the Internet since April 1996, and regarded as one of the most successful government organizations which set up Internet home pages. The Statistics Bureau has enlarged the range of contents to cover links to national/international statistical agencies and clearinghouse services on statistical information. More than 550,000 accesses were counted as of March 1998. The number of accesses to our web site has been increasing.

   The home page has been designed and maintained by our own staff members. It is also provided in English for foreigners.

2. Contents
   The information available on the web site is:
   1. Introduction of our organization
   2. Statistical system in Japan
   3. Abstracted results of censuses and surveys conducted by the Statistics Bureau (Population Census, Family Income and Expenditure Survey, etc.)
   4. PSI (Pocket Statistical Information): Basic Statistical data including economic and financial data
   5. Activities of the Statistics Council
   6. News Bulletins

   The statistical data on the web site are updated at the same time as they are released to the public.

3. Clearinghouse services
   1. Bibliographical information of statistical reports published by government statistical agencies
   2. About 100 links to the web sites of national/international statistical agencies have been set up to make accesses to domestic/foreign statistical data, which used to be difficult to obtain.
4. Form of statistical data stored
   Most of the statistical tables on the web site are downloadable in Microsoft Excel format onto floppy or hard disk at their PCs.
5. Security
   The web server is physically separate from other computer systems in the Statistics Bureau, to avoid potential troubles from intruders.
6. Web server
   1. Hardware
   2. Sun microsystems S-4/20 model125 (CPU: HyperSPARC, Memory: 32MB, HH: 2GB)
   3. Software
   4. Solaris 2.5, SPARCworks PRO

1. Number of accesses by months
   The number of accesses has been increasing rapidly. The number of accesses in February 1998 was about 40,000. It was four times the number in April or May 1996.
2. Number of accesses by hours (April 1996-April 1997)
   The accesses from 9:00 to 19:00 are the most frequent, followed by the number of accesses from 19:00 to 24:00.
3. Number of accesses by countries (April 1996-April 1997)
   The percentage of accesses are; 75% from Japan, 7% from the United States, 0.5% from Canada.
4. Accesses by contents
   1. The 1995 Population Census data was most frequently accessed from April to August 1996, for the preliminary counts on the basis of summary sheets had been released in December 1995, and the results of the 1% sample tabulation was completed in June 1996.
   2. Links to other statistical agencies were most frequently accessed from September 1996 to December 1997.
   3. The accesses to the data of the monthly surveys such as Family Income and Expenditure Survey, Consumer Price Index and Labor Force Survey are ranked in the top ten every month.

The results of the population censuses were disseminated through printed reports and magnetic tapes to the public in the past. Since the printing and publishing processes are costly and time-consuming, non-paper dissemination channels such as Internet, fax-on-demand service and CD-ROM have been introduced for the 1995 Population Census. Internet has been adopted as one of the on-line dissemination methods.

1. Printed reports and magnetic tapes
   This is a traditional way to disseminate the results of the Population Census. All the statistical tables produced are kept on magnetic tapes, and are printed on paper. Most of them are available in publication. The rest is available in printed forms or microfilms in the Statistics Bureau and the prefectural government offices.
2. CD-ROM
   CD-ROM has a large capacity as a data carrier. The results of the detailed 15% sample tabulation that is now being processed will be published by CD-ROMs. Also the results for small areas will be recorded on CD-ROMs, for which a simple software for data retrieval will be provided.
3. Fax-on-demand service
   Essential results are disseminated to the public through fax-on-demand service. Fax-on-demand service is useful for users who require a small amount of data at an instant response.
4. Internet
   Summary results are disseminated to the public through the Internet. Internet is an effective tool to disseminate statistical information for users who have computer equipment and can make an access to the web site. However, it may not be suitable for dissemination of a huge amount of data because of limitations in the capacity of telecommunication lines
5. On-line dissemination
   The Statistics Bureau has been providing all the population census data except small area statistics to other government agencies through the on-line statistical database system called SISMAC developed by the Bureau.

1. The Statistics Bureau has been studying on the improvement of electronic data dissemination for the 2000 Population Census. Though publications will have to remain, they will be reduced to the minimum volume. The dissemination media will be shifted from paper to non-paper. The statistical tables that are not printed in publications will not be printed on paper, but be recorded on CD-ROMs. Magnetic tapes will be used to store and keep statistical data in the archive.
2. Statistical Agencies would be required to find out a way in which printed reports, electronic data dissemination media e.g. floppy, CD-ROM, and database on-line dissemination are appropriately mixed according to their particular situations.

URL of the Statistics Bureau: http://www.stat.go.jp/