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'Fund Museums with Public Money' — What's at Stake in a Country Whose Culture Agency Gets 0.02% of GDP

Naoya YokotaAbout 10 min read

'Use our taxes properly for museums.' A single Threads post exposes the structural thinness of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' budget at 0.02% of GDP. From the points raised about the designated manager system to the medium-term objectives for national museums and rising admission fees, this article examines what it takes for museums to remain a public good.

CulturePolicy GapSocial IssuesJapan
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TL;DR

  1. The Agency for Cultural Affairs' initial budget is about 0.02% of GDP, and as a share of government budget in 2020, Japan's cultural spending was the second lowest of the six countries the Agency compared, after the United States
  2. The sixth medium-term objectives require the National Museum of Art to cover at least 65% of its exhibition costs with self-generated revenue by FY2030
  3. A fundamental philosophical gap separates Europe's framing of cultural access as a right from Japan's treatment of culture as residual budget

What Is Happening

The Agency's budget is about 0.02% of GDP; as a share of government budget in 2020, Japan was second lowest of six countries, after the US.

A single post appeared on Threads.

"Fund museums with public money. Use our taxes properly for museums."

It is brief. Yet this one sentence strikes at the core of a structural problem in Japan's cultural policy.

The scale of the cultural affairs budget

The Agency for Cultural Affairs' budget came to ¥106.3 billion in FY2025 and ¥107.3 billion in FY2026, up ¥900 million or 0.9%. Japan's nominal GDP in FY2024 was ¥642.4 trillion, so the FY2026 budget of the Agency is about 0.02% of it (a calculated figure).

This 0.02% is the Agency's initial budget divided by nominal GDP. Projects funded by the international tourist tax are budgeted separately, at ¥22.4 billion, and a first supplementary budget of ¥43.1 billion was added for FY2025. Local governments' cultural spending is, in the Agency's comparative survey, ¥470 billion (FY2018).

Its weight within the state budget can be seen in the Agency's comparative survey. In 2020, cultural spending was 0.11% of the government budget in Japan, 1.24% in South Korea and 0.92% in France. The report concludes that of the six countries studied, Japan spent the least on culture, and its share of the government budget was the second lowest after the United States. In its FY2024 survey, however, the Agency no longer lists the countries side by side, noting that the scope of cultural policy differs by country and exchange rates make simple comparison difficult.

CountryShare of government budget
South Korea1.24%
France0.92%
Germany0.36%
United Kingdom0.15%
Japan0.11%
United States0.04%
0.5% or moreUnder 0.5%Japan (0.11%)

* Japan combines the Agency for Cultural Affairs budget with projects funded by the international tourist tax. For the United Kingdom and South Korea, items considered to be cultural spending are selected from the budgets of the bodies concerned and added up. Germany is the budget of the federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media; its share fell in 2020 because the government budget rose sharply (0.54% in 2019). The United States is the combined budget of six federal bodies. In its FY2024 survey the Agency no longer lists the countries side by side, noting that the scope of cultural policy differs by country and exchange rates make simple comparison difficult.

Cultural spending as a share of government budget (2020, %). From the FY2020 comparative survey of cultural policy abroad, a report commissioned by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (March 2021)

What does this figure mean in practice? The National Museum of Art, an , relies on operating grants and facility maintenance subsidies for more than 60% of its income. The state's to the institution came to ¥8.46 billion in FY2026, up about ¥320 million from the previous year, with measures for rising prices newly included. Even so, the discussed below call for more self-generated revenue. In the Japanese Association of Museums' FY2024 survey as well, 77.4% of the just over 2,200 museums that responded said that "financially difficult" applies or somewhat applies to them.

The rise in admission fees

In April 2020, the Tokyo National Museum raised adult admission to its permanent collection from ¥620 to ¥1,000. The museum's permanent collection fees have risen in steps since the consumption tax was introduced in 1989, and nearly tripled over those roughly 30 years. The public function of museums as places where people can "casually encounter culture" is being increasingly constrained by the economic barrier of admission fees.

In September 2026, the National Museum of Art announced that it would raise general admission to its collection exhibitions to ¥1,000 at five museums. How this relates to the medium-term objectives is covered in another column（このサイトの記事）.

The sixth medium-term objectives

The situation is set to transform further with the "sixth medium-term objectives" starting FY2026. The objectives, set by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, require the National Museum of Art and the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage to cover at least 65% of their exhibition costs (including the salaries of curators who work on exhibitions and the facilities exhibitions need) with self-generated revenue by the final year, FY2030. During the next medium-term period, the aim is to raise this share to 100%. The National Museum of Art stood at 53% in FY2024. Museums whose share falls below 40% in the fourth year (FY2029), among other signs that they are not fulfilling the role society expects of them, become subject to reorganization. The Agency for Cultural Affairs has stated that reorganization does not envisage closing museums, and that a share below 40% alone does not immediately make a museum subject to reorganization.

In 2023, the National Museum of Nature and Science found itself unable to properly maintain its specimens due to declining grants and soaring utility costs, and launched a crowdfunding campaign that raised approximately ¥920 million from about 57,000 supporters. Nikkei reported that this was the largest amount any crowdfunding campaign in Japan had raised at the time. That a national institution had to rely on citizen donations for basic operations is itself a symbol of the structural underfunding of culture.

Background & Context

What the designated manager system has brought, and the view of access to culture as a right

What the Designated Manager System Wrought

The , introduced in 2003, is a framework for outsourcing the management and operation of public facilities to private operators. According to a document the Agency for Cultural Affairs presented to a subcommittee of the Council for Cultural Affairs in March 2025, the system had been adopted by 30.0% of museums and museum-like facilities as of October 2021.

The same document lists among the system's drawbacks that cost-cutting spills over into the working conditions of staff and that opportunities for training and for developing successors become harder to secure. For facilities that run continuous programs, such as museums, it adds that a change of manager may make it impossible to maintain the quality of the programs. Research accumulation, relationship building with local communities and long-term collection development are all work that is hard to measure by short-term performance metrics.

The designated manager system itself is not inherently flawed. The problem lies in imposing an evaluation framework that prioritizes short-term efficiency onto institutions whose mission is the accumulation of knowledge. Like libraries, museums are public institutions whose value cannot be fully captured by visitor counts or balance sheets measured over a few years.

Cultural Policies Abroad — What Is Different

In 2020, France's cultural spending was 0.92% of its government budget, about eight times Japan's 0.11% (the multiple is a calculated figure). But more important than the difference in shares is the philosophical foundation underlying policy design: that access to culture is a right.

In France, the 41 national museums under the French Ministry of Culture are free for under-18s. People aged 18 to 25 who legally reside in the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes the EU member states, can also enter the permanent collections free of charge. Most national museums open their collections free of charge on the first Sunday of each month. The monuments run by the Centre des monuments nationaux are free on the first Sunday of the month from January to March and from November to December. As of September 2026, admission to the Louvre is €22 for residents of the EEA and €32 for other visitors. Charging by place of residence is the same mechanism as the that Japan's medium-term objectives call for. Even so, the principle of free admission for under-18s and for EEA residents under 26 has been maintained.

In the United Kingdom, permanent collections at major national museums and galleries — including the British Museum and the National Gallery — are free. Free entry for everyone at the national museums sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport began on 1 December 2001.

In Germany, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin admit children and young people up to the age of 18 free. Berlin's city-wide Museum Sunday, in which around 60 museums took part, was last held on 1 December 2024, and no further dates are planned for the time being.

Japan's national museums also offer free admission to their collection exhibitions to high school students and younger, under-18s and those aged 65 and over. The differences lie with the United Kingdom, which makes permanent collections free for everyone, and with France, which extends free admission to ages 18 to 25.

What these countries share is a philosophical foundation that positions access to culture not as "a service for which consumers pay" but as "a right that citizens enjoy."

The Perspective of Cultural Rights

Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, promoted by UNESCO, states: "Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits." Access to culture is internationally recognized not as luxury consumption but as part of fundamental human rights.

In Japan as well, the Basic Act on Culture and the Arts, revised in 2017, states in Article 2(3), part of its basic principles, that creating and enjoying culture and the arts is a right people are born with. It calls for an environment in which everyone can equally appreciate, take part in and create culture and the arts, regardless of age, disability, economic circumstances or where they live. As a legal principle, it recognizes that culture is not the preserve of a select group of enthusiasts but a public good for society as a whole.

Yet between principle and reality lies a deep chasm. A budget amounting to 0.02% of GDP poses the question: is there genuine intent to realize this principle?

Reading the Structure

Analyzes how budget constraints affect museum operations, staffing, and accessibility to the public.

The Threads post at the outset — "Fund museums with public money" — is not merely demanding a budget increase. It calls for a fundamental shift in how public responsibility for culture is conceived.

Residual budgeting, self-generated revenue, expertise

The first structural problem is the "residual" nature of the cultural budget. In Japan's fiscal system, the cultural budget has consistently been treated as "the residual allocated after everything else is done." Amid high-priority spending items — social security, defense, public works — culture is positioned as "desirable if available, but not essential." The figure of 0.02% of GDP is nothing other than the consequence of this structural positioning.

The second problem is the erosion of publicness through "self-revenue" demands. The sixth medium-term objectives' requirement that exhibitions cover at least 65% of their costs with self-generated revenue is a pressure to turn exhibitions into something paid for by admission fees and other own revenue. The objectives say that each museum "shall raise its admission fees and introduce dual pricing during the period of these medium-term objectives." In September 2026 the National Museum of Art announced revised fees for its collection exhibitions（このサイトの記事）. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says the state budget covers collecting and conserving, education and research.

Raising admission fees to increase self-generated revenue may appear to be sound management. But it simultaneously functions as a mechanism that excludes economically disadvantaged groups (low-income households, university students) from culture. Free admission to the collection exhibitions continues for some groups, but for people outside them a fee rise is a direct burden. A ¥1,000 admission fee is "a modest indulgence" for some, and "an unreachable world" for others.

The third problem is the sustainability of expertise. Under the designated manager system, when cost-cutting reaches the working conditions of staff, costs fall in the short term. But over the medium to long term, it erodes the "invisible assets" that museums have accumulated — research capacity, conservation and restoration skills, and the recording and transmission of regional culture. A museum's value lies not in today's visitor count but in decades of accumulated and transmitted knowledge. The consequences of letting the employment of the personnel who build this accumulation become unstable have yet to be fully made visible.

The premise in France and Britain

France puts close to 1% of its government budget into culture because there exists a consensus that culture is "social infrastructure," not a luxury. The United Kingdom makes national museums free because there exists a principle that "access to culture should not vary by income."

What Japan lacks is not merely funding. The social consensus that positions culture as a public good — that consensus itself remains in the process of formation.

"Fund museums with public money." This voice marks the starting point for building that consensus.

Related Columns

References

FY2026 Budget Overview of the Agency for Cultural Affairs — Agency for Cultural Affairs (2026). Agency for Cultural Affairs

Universal Declaration of Human Rights — United Nations (1948). UNESCO

Basic Act on Culture and the Arts (Revised 2017) — Agency for Cultural Affairs (2017). Agency for Cultural Affairs

Visiting the Louvre — Tickets and Prices — Musée du Louvre (2026). Musée du Louvre

Heavy quotas for national museums, and reorganization including closure if they fall short: the shock of the sixth medium-term objectives (in Japanese) — Bijutsu Techo Editorial Team (2026). Bijutsu Techo

Tripled in 30 years: are national museum price rises right or wrong? (in Japanese) — Yusuke Hashizume (2020). Bijutsu Techo

Recommended Reading

転換期の博物館経営: 指定管理者制度・独立行政法人の検証と展望 (Museum Management in Transition: Evaluating the Designated Manager System and the Path Forward)

転換期の博物館経営: 指定管理者制度・独立行政法人の検証と展望 (Museum Management in Transition: Evaluating the Designated Manager System and the Path Forward)

Yoshiaki Kanayama (2020)

An essential text in cultural policy research examining how museum management has transformed under Japan's designated manager system, and charting a sustainable path for museums as public goods.

View on AmazonPR

Statistics cited in this article

  1. 1Agency for Cultural Affairs, FY2026 budget overview（2026） Open source
  2. 2Cabinet Office, FY2024 annual estimates of national accounts（December 2025） Open source
  3. 3Agency for Cultural Affairs, comparative survey of cultural policy abroad (FY2020)（March 2021） Open source
  4. 4MEXT, Medium-Term Objectives for the National Museum of Art（February 2026） Open source
  5. 5Agency for Cultural Affairs, statement on reports about the National Film Archive of Japan's crowdfunding（2026） Open source
  6. 6Japanese Association of Museums, FY2024 Comprehensive Survey of Museums in Japan (preliminary report)（March 2026） Open source
  7. 7Bijutsu Techo, report on three national museums raising admission fees（January 2020） Open source
  8. 8Bijutsu Techo, 'Tripled in 30 years: are national museum price rises right or wrong?'（February 2020） Open source
  9. 9National Museum of Art, announcement on revised admission fees for collection exhibitions（September 2026） Open source
  10. 10Nikkei, report on the National Museum of Nature and Science's crowdfunding（November 2023） Open source
  11. 11Agency for Cultural Affairs, Designated manager systems in cultural facilities (Council for Cultural Affairs, Cultural Facilities Subcommittee, 2nd meeting, document 2)（March 2025） Open source
  12. 12Ministère de la Culture, Les musées nationaux（2026） Open source
  13. 13Ministère de la Culture, La gratuité des collections permanentes pour les moins de 26 ans dans les musées nationaux（2026） Open source
  14. 14Centre des monuments nationaux, Conditions de gratuité（2026） Open source
  15. 15Musée du Louvre, Visit（2026） Open source
  16. 16UK Government (GOV.UK), Ten years of free museums（November 2011） Open source
  17. 17berlin.de, Museum Sunday（2026） Open source

Corrections

  1. — Changed the title, the image headline for social media and the description to refer to the Agency for Cultural Affairs' budget rather than to culture or the cultural budget.

    Before
    Title: “What's at Stake in a Country Spending 0.02% of GDP on Culture” / image headline for social media: “Culture: 0.02% of GDP; exhibitions must cover 65%” / description: “structural thinness of Japan's cultural budget at 0.02% of GDP”
    After
    Title: “What's at Stake in a Country Whose Culture Agency Gets 0.02% of GDP” / image headline for social media: “Culture agency: 0.02% of GDP; exhibitions must cover 65%” / description: “structural thinness of the Agency for Cultural Affairs' budget at 0.02% of GDP”

    Why we got it wrong The roughly 0.02% is the Agency for Cultural Affairs' initial budget alone divided by nominal GDP. When the text was corrected on 25 September 2026, the title, the image headline for social media and the description still referred to culture or the cultural budget, which reads as the share of all spending on culture by the state and local governments combined.

  2. — Brought the summary shown under the Background & Context heading in line with what the section covers.

    Before
    Explores the historical and systemic factors behind Japan's underfunding of cultural institutions.
    After
    What the designated manager system has brought, and the view of access to culture as a right

    Why we got it wrong The section covers the designated manager system, free admission abroad and cultural rights, and does not trace a history of underfunding. The Japanese summary had also spoken of budget cuts, although the Agency for Cultural Affairs' budget rose from ¥106.3 billion in FY2025 to ¥107.3 billion in FY2026.

  3. — Brought the description of the Sixth Medium-Term Objectives in line with the original text, corrected what the 65% is a share of, and removed the references to closure and zero operating grants.

    Before
    The Agency for Cultural Affairs is requiring national museums to achieve a self-generated revenue ratio of 65% or higher by the final year / If a museum's self-generated revenue ratio falls below 40% by FY2029, it will be deemed 'unable to fulfill its social role' and subject to reorganization including potential closure / The ultimate goal is 100% self-generated revenue, effectively zero operating grants
    After
    Exhibitions must cover at least 65% of their costs with self-generated revenue by FY2030, with the aim of reaching 100% in the next period; museums below 40% in the fourth year (FY2029), among other signs of not fulfilling the role society expects of them, become subject to reorganization; the Agency for Cultural Affairs states that reorganization does not envisage closure, and that a share below 40% alone does not immediately make a museum subject to reorganization

    Why we got it wrong The 65% is not a share of total income but the share of exhibition costs covered by self-generated revenue, and the objectives were set by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, not by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The original objectives do not mention closure, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs has stated that reorganization does not envisage closing museums. The 65% and 100% figures apply only to exhibition programs, and the objectives describe securing appropriate operating grants as indispensable.

  4. — Replaced the international comparison chart and text with the figures from the Agency for Cultural Affairs' comparative survey.

    Before
    Cultural budgets by country (% of GDP): France 0.10%, South Korea 0.06%, Germany 0.04%, UK 0.03%, Japan 0.02% / one-fifth of France's, one-third of South Korea's, remarkably low among developed nations / France's cultural budget is about 0.1% of GDP, roughly five times Japan's
    After
    Cultural spending as a share of government budget (2020): South Korea 1.24%, France 0.92%, Germany 0.36%, UK 0.15%, Japan 0.11%, United States 0.04% / Japan is second lowest of the six after the United States / France is about eight times Japan

    Why we got it wrong The GDP shares in the chart had no source, and the Agency's comparative survey gives no GDP shares at all. The chart and text now use the share of government budget the Agency publishes, and include the United States, which the same survey covers. Japan's figure of about 0.02% of GDP is now marked as a calculated figure.

  5. — Corrected the year of the Tokyo National Museum's fee rise, the Louvre's prices, free admission in France and Germany, the operating grants, curators, the Basic Act on Culture and the Arts, and the National Museum of Nature and Science's crowdfunding, in line with the sources.

    Before
    In April 2025 the Tokyo National Museum raised admission from ¥620 to ¥1,000, a 61% increase / roughly tripled over the past 30 years / special exhibitions reach ¥1,600–2,000 / operating grants declining year by year / curators in their 20s earn ¥2.5–3 million / about 70% of curators report excessive workloads / the Louvre raised admission from €22 to €30 in 2024 / about 50 national museums and over 100 monuments free on the first Sunday of each month / regular free-admission days in Berlin / the Act explicitly states that culture contributes to social inclusion / 56,584 supporters, the largest crowdfunding in Japanese history
    After
    ¥620 to ¥1,000 in April 2020 / nearly tripled in the roughly 30 years since the 1989 consumption tax / the special exhibition sentence removed, and a ¥1,000 admission fee used later / grants and subsidies make up more than 60% of income, and the FY2026 grant rose by about ¥320 million / the salary and workload figures removed / €22 for EEA residents and €32 for others as of September 2026 / 41 national museums, monuments free on first Sundays from January to March and November to December / Museum Sunday suspended since December 2024 / wording aligned with Article 2(3) / about 57,000 supporters, the largest in Japan at the time

    Why we got it wrong The Tokyo National Museum's fee rise took place in 2020. No sources were found for the special exhibition prices or for the curators' salary and workload figures. The claim that grants were declining every year contradicts the Agency's statement that they rose in FY2026. The Louvre and the free admission rules in France and Germany now follow the official pages. The text of the Act does not use the words “social inclusion”. The supporter count and the record now follow the Nikkei article cited. The budget document in the references was also updated to the same year as the text.

  6. — Made clear what the 0.02% counts and which year the international comparison covers, and added spending that falls outside it.

    Before
    Japan's cultural budget at 0.02% of GDP is remarkably low among developed nations
    After
    The Agency for Cultural Affairs' initial budget is about 0.02% of nominal GDP / projects funded by the international tourist tax are budgeted separately, at ¥22.4 billion, and a first supplementary budget of ¥43.1 billion was added for FY2025 / local governments' cultural spending is ¥470 billion (FY2018) / the international comparison uses 2020 figures, and Germany's share fell in 2020 because the government budget rose sharply (0.54% in 2019)

    Why we got it wrong The roughly 0.02% is the Agency's initial budget divided by nominal GDP, not spending on culture by the state and local governments combined. The tourist-tax projects and supplementary budgets sit outside the initial budget, and the Agency's comparative survey puts local governments' cultural spending in Japan at ¥470 billion. The comparison figures are for 2020, but the year was not stated.

  7. — Replaced statements without sources, on a rise in museum closures, the casualization of curators and a principle behind free admission in the UK, with content that has a source.

    Before
    Municipal budget constraints have led to an increase in museum consolidations and closures / cost reduction became the overriding evaluation criterion, and the casualization of curators accelerated / curators became predominantly non-regular employees cycling through three-to-five-year contract renewals / the casualization of curators under the designated manager system contributes to cost reduction in the short term / the principle that 'cultural institutions are funded by taxes and open to all citizens' has been consistent since the free admission policy of 2001
    After
    77.4% of the museums that responded to the Japanese Association of Museums' FY2024 survey said that 'financially difficult' applies or somewhat applies to them / a document of the Agency for Cultural Affairs lists, among the drawbacks of the designated manager system, cost-cutting spilling over into staff working conditions and fewer opportunities for training and for developing successors / free entry for everyone at DCMS-sponsored museums in the UK began on 1 December 2001

    Why we got it wrong No statistics showing that museum closures are rising could be found. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Survey on Social Education (FY2021) counted a record 1,305 museums, and museum-like facilities also rose from the previous survey, to 4,466. The Japanese Association of Museums' FY2024 survey says non-regular staff are about a quarter of all staff and that their increase has been halted. No source was found for curators being on three-to-five-year contracts, and the wording of the UK principle could not be confirmed, so the text now gives only the start date that could be confirmed.

  8. — Rewrote the paragraph on the erosion of publicness through self-revenue demands, limiting it to exhibitions and basing it on what the medium-term objectives say about admission fees.

    Before
    The Sixth Medium-Term Target's mandate of '65% or higher self-generated revenue, or face closure' effectively pressures museums to transform into revenue-generating enterprises / a mechanism that excludes low-income households, students, the elderly and people with disabilities from culture
    After
    The 65% goal for exhibitions is a pressure to turn exhibitions into something paid for by admission fees and other own revenue. The objectives call for raising admission fees and introducing dual pricing during the period, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs says the state budget covers collecting and conserving, education and research / a mechanism that excludes low-income households and university students from culture

    Why we got it wrong The 65% applies only to exhibitions, and the Agency says the state budget funds the other three areas, so the pressure cannot be described as one that turns museums as a whole into revenue-generating enterprises. The rise in admission fees and the introduction of dual pricing, however, are in the text of the objectives. The National Museum of Art's announcement says free admission to the collection exhibitions for high school students and younger, under-18s, those aged 65 and over, and holders of disability certificates with one companion continues, so the elderly and people with disabilities were removed from the groups said to be excluded.

  9. — Added to the comparison with other countries that Japan's national museums also have free admission groups for collection exhibitions, and that the Louvre's prices differ by place of residence.

    Before
    The comparison listed only free-admission arrangements abroad and did not mention those at Japan's national museums
    After
    Japan's national museums also offer free admission to their collection exhibitions to high school students and younger, under-18s and those aged 65 and over. The differences lie with the United Kingdom, which makes permanent collections free for everyone, and with France, which extends free admission to ages 18 to 25 / the Louvre's prices, which differ by place of residence, work on the same principle as the dual pricing the medium-term objectives call for

    Why we got it wrong Free admission for under-18s exists at Japan's national museums as well. A comparison that lists only the arrangements abroad makes the gap with Japan look larger than it is, so this was added.

  10. — Corrected the cultural budget to the published figures and dropped the Louvre's percentage increase.

    Before
    The Agency for Cultural Affairs budget is about 110 billion yen / the Louvre raised admission from 22 to 30 euros in 2024, an increase of 38%
    After
    106.3 billion yen for FY2025 and 107.3 billion yen for FY2026 (up 900 million yen, 0.9%) / the percentage increase has been dropped

    Why we got it wrong The ¥110 billion differs from the published figures and does not appear in the PDF cited; the text now follows the FY2026 budget overview. The Louvre's 38% increase could not be confirmed because the museum's site renders its prices in JavaScript.

Questions to Reflect On

  1. What changes have you observed in museum admission fees or operating hours in your community?
  2. In what ways should cultural institutions balance public funding with self-generated revenue?
  3. Consider how government budget priorities reflect a society's values regarding arts and culture - what does this reveal about your country's commitments?

Key Terms in This Article

Operating Grant
Money the state provides to an independent administrative institution to fund its operations. It rests on Article 46 of Japan's general law on independent administrative institutions, under which the government may, within its budget, provide all or part of the amount needed to fund the institution's work. Because the money comes from taxes and other public funds, the institution must try to use it properly and efficiently (Article 46(2)).
Designated Manager System
A system under Japan's Local Autonomy Act that allows private operators and NPOs to manage public facilities. Introduced in 2003 to improve efficiency and service quality, though typically short designation periods (3-5 years) can hinder long-term investment.
Medium-Term Objectives
Operational objectives that the competent minister sets for a period of three to five years, issues to an institution and publishes, under Article 29 of Japan's general law on independent administrative institutions. They set the period and cover the quality of services, operational efficiency and financial improvement. The institution then draws up a medium-term plan based on them and has it approved by the minister (Article 30).
Independent Administrative Institution
A corporation established as provided for by Japan's general law on independent administrative institutions (Act No. 103 of 1999) and by an individual act for each institution. It carries out public tasks that must be performed reliably and that the state need not run directly itself, but that might not necessarily be carried out if left to private bodies, or that need to be run by a single body (Article 2 of the general law). The law sets three types. The National Museum of Art and the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage belong to the type that works to medium-term objectives set by the minister.
Dual Pricing
At tourist and cultural facilities, setting separate prices for the same facility or service for residents of Japan and for visitors who live abroad. The medium-term objectives for the National Museum of Art (February 2026) call for introducing such dual pricing within the objectives period.

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