The statistics community and the misconduct issue for Japanese official statistics

- How the government, experts, and non-experts responded to the problem of the Monthly Labour Survey
TANAKA Sigeto <http://tsigeto.info>
(Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University)
Annual Reports of Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University. 73:198-169 (2024-03-07)

[Published online version] [Journal site]

[Manuscript PDF] [Manuscript PDF on OSF] [Manuscript PDF on Academia.edu]

[Communication] [Links]



URI: http://tsigeto.info/24a
OSF project: https://osf.io/rs8t7/

Abstract

In Japan, we have recently witnessed several cases of long-overlooked misconduct in official statistics. The Japanese statistics community, which comprises people who are interested and skilled in statistics and capable of reading Japanese, does not appear to have made a remarkable contribution to detecting such misconduct. To discover the reason, this study focused on the incorrect method for estimating the number of workers introduced in 2018 to the Monthly Labour Survey by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). On the basis of literature published since 2018, the author revealed that both inspecting committees in the government and external statistical experts overlooked indications of method alteration as well as the biases resulting from it, because they worked only on documents and explanations prepared by the MHLW. The finding suggests that, with the exception of a few non-expert citizens in the periphery, the Japanese statistics community lacks data-based criticism. At the core of the com munity, statistical experts uncritically and unjustifiably approve what government statisticians contend, without conducting original research on publicly available data.

[Contents in the Japanese page]

[Full-text files]


Supplemental information

{DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/RS8T7}


Communication

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[Published online version] [Manuscript PDF] [Manuscript PDF on OSF] [Manuscript PDF on Academia.edu]


Tohoku Univ / School of Arts and Letters / Innovative Japanese Studies / TANAKA Sigeto


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