Building Document Information Management to Support Society-Wide Digitization
The public interest incorporated association Japan Image and Information Management Association has been committed to promoting awareness of document information management for the past 60 years. In the course of its history, the recording mediums have grown in scope from microfilm to electronic media and further extending into cloud storage services. Content has also spread from photographs to image data and is reaching further to document information. Management has expanded from recording and storage to wider applications and usage.
Advances in information technology have facilitated information creation and distribution. On the other hand, information management has grown in sophistication and difficulty, making the development of various schemes, including legal frameworks, urgently necessary. For both business enterprises and nations, a low level of maturity in information management may lead to the perception of not being industrialized.
In the implementation of digitization-related laws, including the establishment of the Digital Agency that took effect in May 2021, there were hopes of Japan catching up with other industrialized nations in digitization. To prevent the risks that accompany digitization, the key is steady implementation of document information management. Although digital documents excel in the effective use and application of information, it is at the same time vulnerable to alteration, thus requiring appropriate management of the originals, copies, versions, certificates of payment, etc., to remove the possibility of inviting confusion and losses exceeding the benefits. Notwithstanding, the proper management of the explosive growth of document information urgently requires effective internal control schemes, rational business administration processes and ICT system support, as well as the training of people who belong to the organization.
JIIMA is engaged in developing proposals of effective document information management in the digital age that have already arrived through research, ISO/JIS standardization activities, human resource development, product certification, policy recommendations, etc., and in activities to promote awareness. We sincerely look forward to your support and cooperation in the face of this expanding movement.
Yasuyuki Katsumaru
President of the Japan Image and Information Management Association, Public Interest Incorporated Association
