On March 27, 2023, the Agency for Cultural Affairs was relocated to Kyoto Prefecture.

I think the decentralization of administrative functions has its advantages and disadvantages, but I felt that the penalties were -- and are -- considerably mitigated by remote work.

However, I was astonished to see the number of times the Agency for Cultural Affairs staff traveled to Tokyo.

"Over 1,000 times in total in one month"

What in the world is going on? I wondered, but it turned out that it was apparently "an order by a politician who hates remote meetings.

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Under the Freedom of Information Act, I am thinking of requesting the following

'The name of the politician who calls up staff in Kyoto, the number of times he/she has called them up, (and if possible, the "reason for calling them up").'

I am serious -- furious.

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Every day, NHK news shows the prime minister and other officials gathered in a large conference room for meetings.

Let me estimate the cost of one hour of this "meeting" at a minimum,

- 500,000 yen/hour for Prime Minister and Minister level

- 300,000 yen/hour for the Administrative Vice-Minister level

- 200,000 yen/hour for Administrative staff,

- About 1 to 2 million yen for preparing materials, conference room rental, and other work costs

Total, roughly 7 million yen/hour.

It would be about 14 million yen for a two-hour meeting.

(This is an estimate based on the fact that even I, as a senior researcher, am priced at roughly 100,000 yen/hour (*).

(*) This is not about salary but about expenses (costs).

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Of course, there are meetings where 'Face to Face (F2F) is desperately needed.

In my case, I certainly find meetings where I cannot write freely on the whiteboard frustrating.

In particular, remote meetings for detailed discussions of technical specifications are honestly painful.

Hence, the "verification of whether or not these meetings, which are aired on NHK news, are worth the cost" must be done.

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As for politicians who call Kyoto officials to Tokyo, the question of whether it was necessary to call them from Kyoto must be disclosed to the public, scrutinized, and properly verified.

If the politician says, "I am not good at remote meetings, I don't like them, I can't get my true intentions across,' and they are uninformed, uneffortful, or so incompetent that they can't communicate their intentions through remote communication,

We do not need such politicians in our country.