Streamlining School Lunch Fee Payment Operations through DX (Digital Transformation) Following Public Accounting Integration

As the transition to public accounting for school lunch fees progresses nationwide, local governments are facing challenges in managing accounting tasks such as payments, reconciliation, and monthly aggregation, which tend to concentrate during specific periods, straining limited staff and making it difficult to ensure the accuracy of accounting processes.

In light of this, Kita Ward, Tokyo (Mayor: Kanako Yamada) has adopted the "Food Procurement Payment Outsourcing Scheme" provided by NTT Finance Corporation (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Shozo Ito; hereinafter "the Company") for the payment of food procurement costs associated with the transition to public accounting for school lunch fees, scheduled for April 2026. The service is slated to begin on May 1, 2026.

This scheme will help level out the increased volume of payment and accounting tasks resulting from the public accounting transition, supporting operational efficiency for school staff and the Board of Education secretariat, while ensuring more appropriate and stable accounting processes.

■ Common Challenges for Local Governments Emerging from Public Accounting Integration

The public accounting integration of school lunch fees is an important institutional reform where local governments take over the collection and management of these fees to reduce the administrative burden on school staff and improve the transparency and appropriateness of accounting. However, even after the transition, there are ongoing issues that require attention, such as the concentration of payment-related tasks, the establishment of procedures and check systems, and the standardization of data management methods.

In particular, the following points are commonly observed across many local governments:

• Handling large volumes of invoice verification and payment processing
• Maintaining stable operations with limited personnel
• Reducing reliance on specific individuals and ensuring operational quality

(*) Definition of public accounting integration for school lunch fees: Adopting a "public accounting system" where school lunch fees are incorporated into the local government's accounting (Excerpt from MEXT's "On the Public Accounting Integration of School Lunch Fees ① - Overview").

■ Reasons for Kita Ward's Adoption of This Service

With the transition to public accounting, Kita Ward expected to handle new invoice processing for food procurement costs across 44 ward-run schools (estimated at approximately 450 invoices per month). As accounting tasks were consolidated into the Board of Education secretariat, there were concerns regarding the concentration of payment procedures and the increased workload for verification and aggregation tasks.

Given this background, Kita Ward prioritized:

• Operational design that maintains stability even with limited staff
• A system that standardizes verification, aggregation, and reconciliation processes while ensuring the appropriateness of accounting

Consequently, the ward adopted the Company's service, which provides an outsourcing scheme for payment operations and data management.

■ Features of This Scheme

・Reduction of Workload through Centralized Payment Operations
By having the Company act as an agent for payments to food suppliers, the Board of Education secretariat can complete its tasks with a single monthly payment process. This design suppresses the concentration of daily payment and reconciliation tasks, aiming to level out the administrative workload.

・Improvement of Processing Accuracy through Standardized Data Management
Based on the linked invoice data, the Company supports the preparation of forms and CSV data, contributing to improved accounting accuracy by stabilizing the precision of input, transcription, and aggregation tasks.

・Operational Design Aligned with Public Accounting
The system supports monthly data aggregation and centralized management, balancing the standardization of verification procedures in line with the local government's workflow with easy-to-manage operations. It supports stable operation in accordance with institutional requirements.