Kazegoshi Shingo, the protagonist of the Japanese novel “The Summer of Bureaucrats”, says, “We work for the country, not for a cabinet minister.” Kazagoshi, an official at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, refused to get up from his seat to welcome his minister, who is only nominally above him in the hierarchy. Published in 1975, the book highlighted the power of Japanese mandarins during the post-war boom, when graduates of elite universities were struggling for jobs in key ministries. Top bureaucrats had the same status and power as top bankers. He brought the Japanese state machinery into disarray.
It’s winter these days in Japan’s once powerful civil service. Talented cadres are fleeing harsh working conditions in search of greater opportunities and greater flexibility. The number of typical “career-track” civil servants leaving within their first ten years on the job has reached record highs over the past two years. Applications for civil-servant positions have declined by 30% between 2012 and 2023. The share of graduates from Japan’s top university, the University of Tokyo, who passed the career-track exam has dropped from 32% in 2000 to less than 10% this year, with today’s best and brightest preferring jobs at startups. .
This may be welcome news for Japan Inc., but the brain drain from the public sector also has worrying implications. Even though their power has diminished since the Kazegoshi era, bureaucrats still play a large role in Japan’s policymaking process. MPs have thin staffs and often turn to Mandarin for legislative support. Civil servants in Japan “play a political role”, says Steven Vogel of the University of California, Berkeley. At a time when Japan faces complex challenges, from managing a growing population to grappling with new technologies like artificial intelligence, it cannot afford a hollow civil service.
The future of the bureaucracy is a thorny issue as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party prepares to elect a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on September 27. Kono Taro, a leading candidate, has served as Minister of Administrative Reform three times (holding other positions in the ministries of Digital, Defense, and Foreign Affairs); He made his name by waging a war against outdated technologies such as fax machines and floppy disks still prevalent in the Japanese state. Keizai Doyukai, a large business organization, called an overhaul of the bureaucracy an “urgent” matter for the upcoming reform.
You only have to visit Kasumigaseki, Tokyo’s central government district, late at night to understand the problem. After the subways close, taxis cluster around the ministry buildings as if they were nightclubs. Often the reason for going late into the night is a last-minute request by MPs to prepare replies for the next day’s hearing. While answering such questions, bureaucrats finish work around 1 am – leaving a few hours to sleep before attending Parliament. A former State Department official who left to become an advisor recalls working 100 hours of overtime every month during his first two years.
The Japanese government is a microcosm of the country’s worst office culture. Some now call kasumigaseki a “black” workplace – code for exploitative conditions and a harsh work culture. The old and traditional ways of doing business still persist. An insular, seniority-based promotion system hinders the career prospects of recruits. Bullying by politicians is all too common, and goes on without penalty, “If you’re smart, why would you do this thing?” An MP says. “Smart people are leaving—and we feel it.”
The solution partly lies in less red tape for civil servants themselves. Kawamoto Yuko, the current head of the National Personnel Authority, spent years at McKinsey and has sought to modernize government workplaces. But deeper changes are necessary and will require greater political will. A previous set of civil-service reforms implemented in 2014 put more power in the hands of elected politicians, but failed to clarify new roles for mandarins. Ministries remain highly isolated from each other and from the private sector. More senior positions should be opened to external appointments based on expertise and performance. A faster, more modern civil service would set an example for the rest of Japan. And this will prove to be a better basis for solving the problems of the coming decades. In short, it’s time for bureaucrats to spring forth.
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