International Statistical Literacy Project

Welcome to the World of Statistics. Introduction to Official Statistics is a movie in English (or Japanese) about the world of official statistics in Japan. It starts with a very important question: Imagine a world without statistics published by official governments. What couldn’t we do? A lot of things. The video nicely promotes statistics and explains how the official numbers come to light. It has music, color, nice images and real people.

Website related to Statistics Day (in English). Each year since 1973, Japan has observed Statistics Day on 18 October. In 2002 events related to statistics day included a statistics fair (which included the winners from the 50th anniversary of the National Statistical Graph Competition) and a free public symposium for academics and practitioners.

Website related to Census and school-age children. The name of this website is “naruhodo data for kids” (Here are Statistics for Kids). This is a very comprehensive website set up for children to promote their understanding of statistics and ensure eventually the reliability of statistics. It provides for free more than 120 kinds of statistical data, including population census data.

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• CD for schools (in Japanese)

This CD is called “tsukattemiyou toukeideita” (Let’s Use the Census Data). It was distributed free to all elementary and junior high schools in Japan.

• National Statistical Graph Competition. This competition began in 1952.

• Museum of Statistics.

“The Museum of Statistics was opened in 1991, marking the 120th anniversary of the Statistics Bureau and the National Statistics Center.” (quoted from brochure about Museum of Statistics). Its intent is to enhance the awareness of the importance of and familiarity with official statistics in a casual setting. The museum is free and is divided into six sections: Panel Corner (that gives a brief explanation of statistical censuses and surveys, including their development and use), Video Corner (that responds visually to statistical questions of visitors), Prefectural Publications Corner (has statistical publications compiled by each of the prefectures), Foreign Census Corner, Historic Statistical Documents Corner, and Tabulating Machines Corner (that shows these machines in chronological order so that people can easily see the changes that have occurred). It also explains how current official statistics are produced and disseminated. Located within the Statistics Bureau Statistics Center at 19-1 Wakamatsucho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8668. Tel: +81-3-5273-1187 or +81-3-5273-1131 .

The Institute offers basic and advanced courses on statistical theory, methodology and practice to the staff of national and local governments. It provides four kinds of courses at present in order to meet the various needs of administrative and statistical personnel; A General Course, Special Course, Specialized Course and Special Lectures. The General Courses is held once a year. This three-month course is designed to provide statistical theories, statistical survey practice, statistical analysis and practical applications of statistical methods. The Special Courses are held covering four specific subjects for one month duration respectively; Statistical Theories, Economic Statistics and Analysis, Demographic and Social Statistics and Analysis, and Statistical Survey Practice. The Specialized Courses are held covering four specific themes for one week or two weeks; Methodology for Population and Economy Projection, Statistical Analysis using EXCEL Software, and National and Regional Accounts. The Special Lectures are held covering several fields for one week; Roles of Statistics in Administrative Management, How-to Course on Statistics, and Statistical Approach to Administrative Evaluation. The Institute bears the expense of tuition, but the sender organization bears the expense of traveling and teaching materials such as textbooks.