Impact of New Public Management on the Efficiency of Japanese Museums*

Abstract

The aim of the present paper was to determine how small government policies have changed the management of Japanese prefectural museums since 2006. To reconstruct the budget positions of local governments, the Koizumi Government advocated a policy of ‘small’ government and cuts in the costs of public facilities. One example is the introduction of the designated manager system (DMS) into museums. The DMS is a form of new public management, enabling private managers to manage public facilities. Using stochastic frontier analysis, this paper investigates the impact of the introduction of the DMS on the efficiency of museums.