Taro SAKAMOTO (a historian) stated in "Prince Shotoku" published in 1979 that since 'Kokushi' might have existed at the time of the reign of Empress Suiko and there had been also some sorts of bureaucratic systems prior to the ritsuryo system (a system of centralized government based on the ritsuryo code), the description in the "Nihonshoki" could be correct.
坂本太郎(歴史学者)は、1979年の『聖徳太子』において、「国司」は推古朝当時に存在したと見てもよく、律令制以前であっても官制的なものはある程度存在したから、『日本書紀』の記述を肯定できるとした。