日本의 規制影響評價와 規制에 대한 事前評價制度에 관한 考察

The current global economic crisis is foreshadowing the need to move away from current trends emphasizing autonomy and deregulation. While the maximization of profit is an inherent characteristic of a capitalistic system, it does not necessarily mean that capitalism itself sanctions extreme activities that result in complete destruction. Therefore, economic society needs a reasonable social mechanism to limit human greed and risk-taking. One possible solution to this need is regulation. Future crises such as the current global financial crisis, which is a result of an economic system oriented toward autonomy and competition, can be give avoided through renegotiation of government regulation and supervision of the market. This paper focuses on the series of measures taken by the Japanese government as part of a successful regulation reform implemented during the financial crisis of the 1980s. In particular, oneof the main characteristics of the regulatory administration adopted by the Japanese government during this period was that the government alleviated regulations in those economic sectors which required alleviation and strengthened government regulations in those sectors which required stronger governmental intervention. In order to successfully implement this plan, the Japanese government established a Committee on Regulation Reformation, making annual announcements regarding the necessary reform measures for each different economic sector. During these series of processes, the Japanese government also implemented a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) System, to regularly assess regulatory impact on each different sector of the market. In order to materialize these necessary implementations, the government legislated amendments to its existing laws and regulations. This type of approach could be classified as an expansion of the Ex Ante Assessment Mechanism to the regulations under the Act on Policy Assessment. In the analysis of the Ex Ante Assessment Mechanism in regards to the Japanese market regulations, this paper focused on amendments to the Act on Policy Assessment, as well as the Enforcement Ordinance and Enforcement Regulations. In addition, this paper further investigated the basic policy for Administrative Assessment as well as guidelines provided to conduct these Ex Ante Assessments. The Regulatory Impact Assessment System and the Ex Ante Assessment Mechanism in Japan both have great significance to Korea, which is currently undergoing a comprehensive reformation of its regulations. During this kind of comprehensive reform for the promotion of economic development, an Ex Ante Assessment Mechanism provides an opportunity to assess the possible effects of regulation reforms before their actual implementation, and therefore have great significance in predicting the social cost necessary in implementing the plans.