14 ibid. The targets are 30%(Unit Chief), 17%(Assistant director),10%(Division director), 8%(Designated Service). Target figures are for Headquarters positions.15 In 2021, the Revised Law on Stable Employment of Older Persons took effect, requiring the private sector to make efforts to continue employment until the age of 70 or to abolish the mandatory retirement age to ensure job opportunities for workers aged 65 to 70. However, private companies rarely raise their retirement age and often re-employ them. Raising the retirement age of civil servants is a reform to lead the private sector.16 According to data released by the NPA, the number of successful applicants from the University of Tokyo in the Comprehensive Service Exam (Spring) was 454 in 2013 and 193 in 2023(4) Declining popularity of public service The most serious problem today is the decline in the popularity of public service as a career. The number of successful applicants from the University of Tokyo, once considered an academic clique, has dropped by half over the past 10 years16, and the number of employees who retire after less than 10 years has continued to rise. In recent years, the number of applicants for the National Public Service examination has declined, making it difficult to recruit top talent. While a number of those surveyed by the NPA cited the difficulty of studying for the exam as a reason, three underlying problems have been frequently identified.payments, but most reappointments so far have been short time works for supplementary duties and cannot fully utilize the abilities and experiences of public employees over 60 on a full-time basis. As a result, the National Public Service Act was revised in 2021 to gradually raise the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65 over an eight-year period starting in 2023 to promote the employment of elder public employees for the realization of “the Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens15”. However, the increase in mandatory retirement age is subject to the following conditions: stepping-down from managerial to non-managerial positions at age 60, and a salary cut by 30% for those over 60. Although these conditions can’t be fully explained from the perspective of ability and performance for each position or duty, they are unavoidably imposed to balance the private sector trend of lowering salaries for those over 60. Both the public and private sectors still have seniority-based personnel systems, so raising the retirement age could lead to a shortage of managerial positions and an increase in personnel expenses. To move to personnel management system based purely on ability and performance without regard to age, it is necessary to properly continue to conduct job analysis and personnel evaluations and to gain public understanding of the necessary personnel expenses. The first is poor working conditions. Although work style reform is being promoted, long working hours have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Many criticize the high remunerations of public employees, but in reality, the remunerations based on the NPA recommendations are not high at all in urban areas, and working conditions are not as good as in large private companies. The second reason is the declining attractiveness and satisfaction of the public service profession itself. In the prewar and early postwar years, public officials were the elite of the nation, and their authority was high. Until the 1960s, public employees, especially Careers, had a sense of mission and were sometimes willing to go toe-to-toe with politicians for the future of the nation. In the 1970-1980s, public employees were involved in interest coordination and policymaking, working closely with politicians under the long-term LDP government. However, with the emergence of the non-LDP coalition government in 1993 and the end of the LDP rule since 1955, people’s attitudes toward the relationship between politicians and public officials gradually changed. A series of scandals undermined confidence in the public service system, and when the DPJ government came to power in 2009 with the goal of “De-Bureaucratic Politics”, Ministers, Vice-Ministers, and parliamentary secretaries began to play a central role in policymaking within their respective ministries and 21
元のページ ../index.html#21