Bengo4.com and NTT-AT Launch Discuss E-Sign® Electronic Signature Service for Legislative Assemblies

Bengo4.com (Minato-ku, Tokyo; Taichiro Motoe, Representative Director, President and CEO, Lawyer; hereafter the “Company”) announces the launch of Discuss E-Sign®, a new electronic signature service for local legislative assemblies jointly developed by Bengo4.com, the developer of the CloudSign® contract management platform, and NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Tadashi Ito, Representative Director and President; hereinafter, “NTT-AT”).
The impact of this development on business results for the current fiscal year is insignificant.

■ Background
Following the April 2024 amendment of the Local Autonomy Act, local assemblies in Japan are now able to further digitize their procedures, making it possible to carry out a wide range of administrative tasks, such as the approval of meeting minutes and the submission of petitions, via cloud platforms. To meet the growing digitalization needs of local governments, the Company has partnered with NTT-AT, a company with a strong track record in the public sector. By leveraging its expertise as the no. 1 provider of electronic contract solutions for municipal governments,*1 it aims to jointly promote the secure and reliable digital transformations implemented by local legislative bodies.
As a first step toward the digitalization of legislative procedures, the companies have jointly launched a new offering in the Discuss® product line. Discuss E-Sign® integrates the electronic signature functionality of CloudSign® provided by the Company into the Discuss® product line.
*1: Comparison based on in-house survey of the number of municipalities deciding on implementation following a value contract from information on public solicitations, tenders and proposals released by municipalities nationwide. Data as of June 1, 2025.

■ What is Discuss E-Sign®?: https://www.ntt-at.co.jp/product/discuss/resellers.html
Discuss E-Sign® is an electronic signature solution designed to simplify the process of creating and approving the minutes of legislative assembly meetings. Local governments usually have a multi-stew workflow for publishing the minutes of meetings. Typically, a private vendor prepares the minutes, which are then signed and sealed by the chairperson, vice-chairperson and designated assembly members. Then the minutes are reported to the mayor, mailed to assembly members and libraries, and finally published on an online minutes archive system. In this process, analog tasks, such as the manual seal application and approval of the minutes, have long been bottlenecks hindering the overall efficiency of the process. By using Discuss E-Sign®, local assemblies can digitize the entire workflow from the drafting of minutes to their final publication. This can streamline the sharing and approval of draft documents, which were previously time and labor intensive, accelerating the publication of meeting records. 


The Company and NTT-AT will continue to explore new ways to support the digital transformation of legislative operations and enhance its services through the continuing update of features.

■ About Discuss® series: https://www.ntt-at.co.jp/product/discuss/
The Discuss® series of comprehensive solutions enable ICT-based legislative operations by supporting everything from the efficient management of legislative assemblies to the disclosure of information to the public, all through a single integrated platform. The product line includes a range of systems designed to control and support legislative information infrastructure, such as tools for searching the minutes of meetings and live broadcasting capabilities.

• DiscussBox®: All-in-one control system for legislative assembly equipment
• DiscussVision®: Live broadcasting system for legislative assembly sessions
• DiscussNetPremium®: System for searching the minutes of meetings
• DiscussCabinet®: Legislative document filing system
• DiscussWeb®: Content management system (CMS) for legislative assemblies’ websites
• Discuss E-Sign®: Electronic signature service for use by legislative assemblies

■ About CloudSign: https://www.cloudsign.jp/
CloudSign is a contract management platform that enables digitization of everything from contract execution to management and AI review. The electronic signatures and timestamps are compliant with the Act on Electronic Signatures and Certification Business, ensuring smooth and secure contract execution. CloudSign also began offering Japan’s first ever My Number Card (individual number card) signature capability as part of its general-purpose contracting service in 2023. The platform also shortens the time required for the entire contracting process through the active adoption of AI technology including an AI contract management capability and an AI-powered contract review service, CloudSign Review.
CloudSign has become the No. 1 service in the electronic contract market*3, and is widely adopted by companies and local governments.
*3: Market share in “New Markets of Software Business 2024” (2023 result of e-contract tools) by Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Inc.