A Review of the Japan Representative Office

Abstract

The Japanese Representative Office (JRO) was officially inaugurated in November 1996 in Tokyo. As was agreed by the Board of Directors, this information paper reviews JRO’s activities, relative to its approved terms of reference (TOR), during its first two years of operations. The information paper is based on the findings of a working group that studied JRO’s operations and interviewed staff from concerned Bank departments and offices under the guidance of Vice President (Finance and Administration), and the Working Group Mission that visited Japan from 12 to 20 April 1999 to meet with JRO staff and a cross-section of JRO’s constituency. The paper first provides background information on JRO operations, then assesses the operations. The assessment starts with a review of JRO’s cooperation with the Japanese Government, multilateral finance institutions (MFIs) and United Nations (UN) agencies, and non-government organizations (NGOs), following the structure of JRO’s TOR. The assessment also focuses on JRO’s (utility and operational effectiveness for the Bank, and usefulness from the perspective of the major interest groups in Japan. The paper’s fourth section briefly analyzes JRO’s benefits and costs. The last section discusses the future direction of JRO’s operations, with a view to improving JRO’s utility and operational effectiveness.