Historical Roots of the Japanese Civil Service

• The modern civil service system in Japan arrived in the nineteenth century
when the modernization movement, often described as the “Meiji
Restoration,” started in 1868.
• In that year, the first centralized government, called dajokan, was
established under the emperor.
• The first modern civil service entrance exam system based on the merit
principle was started in 1887 when the civil service entrance exam rule was
established.
• Both higher civil services, called koutoukan, and lower class civil service,
called hanninkan, were selected and recruited by the imperial government.
• In 1877, the government also created an educational institution, the
University of Tokyo, as a training ground for higher central government
bureaucrats.
• The school was designated to supply talented public officials, whose
function was to implement imperial rule throughout the country.
• As gatekeepers of the regency, graduates of Tokyo University were given
several privileges. Of these, for a long period, the obligation of the civil
service exam was waived for them.
• The required skills and knowledge for civil service were basically legal
knowledge rather than management skills or policy knowledge. It might be
noted that until around 1990, many officials were in fact recruited from the
lower samurai class that had been leading the Meiji Restoration and the
activities against the previous tycoon regimes.
• Goals of the civil service reform
 strengthening the cabinet’s functions and creating comprehensive and
flexible government by reorganizing government ministries.
◾ creating a simple and efficient public administrative system by using
civilian capabilities and introducing ex post facto policy assessment in
order to respect the independence and responsibility of people.
◾ achieving a highly transparent governmental system by disclosing
governmental information and increasing accountability.
◾ providing high-quality civil service that truly focuses on the people by
computerizing administrative affairs and improving public convenience in
utilizing civil service.
• In the following, specific recommendations made for civil service reform
• Construction of new personnel system:
(i) Creating a new job classification system which provides standards
for recruitment, salary, and evaluation according to their job ability.
(ii) Establishing a new recruitment system based on job classification
and putting the right person with the right abilities in the right place
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 (iii) Develop a new evaluation system for discharging or demotion
based on clear standard and measures.
(iv) Creating a new salary system which reflects employees’ ability,
duty and achievement, including incentives which reflect employees’
ability, duty and achievement.
(v) Introducing a new evaluation and assessment system based on
employees’ ability and achievement.
(vi) Setting organization goal and establishing standard for behavior (i.e.
work performance levels).
(vii) Establishing a system for developing human resources and for
supporting “fast-track” bureaucrats based on eagerness and ability,
regardless of recruitment category.
(viii) Establishing a new personnel system for executive staff (e.g., Vice
Minister, Director, Assistant Vice Minister and etc.).
(ix) A new system that supports employees who seek to improve
themselves through education, including a study abroad program.

2. Recruitment of diverse human resources:

(i) Revising the recruitment examination in order to obtain a broader pool
of successful candidates.
(ii) Making more use of “open” recruitment for filling internal positions,
thereby helping employees to better use their talents.
(iii) Recruiting more human resources from private sector, allowing public
servants to be employees at private companies, and creating a more flexible
salary system to make this possible.
(iv) increasing the recruitments of females, and helping both females and
males to achieve a good balance between work and family.

3.Establishing proper rules for reemployment:

(i) Develop rules for approving reemployment, especially restricting
reemployment at an economic company to appeal to civil servants (i.e.,
anti-lobbying).
(ii) Develop rules regarding reemployment at special public corporations
and charitable corporations to avoid or reduce retirement benefits and
salaries for directors, including rules that require public corporations and
the government to disclose how many retired public servants are serving as
a executive at a corporation or its affiliate company.
(iii) Rules to adjust the present retirement benefit system which is
advantageous for longtime employees.

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 4. Improvement of organizational performance:
(i) Allow ministries to determine their own staffing needs based on their
judgment and responsibility.
(ii) Create a “national strategy staff” from inside or outside the government
through which the Prime Minister appoints employees at his or her
discretion for purposes of policy development.
(iii) Reduce extra duties that come from preparation for the Diet, legal
screens, budget negotiations, discussions among ministries, etc. which
causes extra duties consistently.
• Major Reforms of the Civil Service System:

Construction of New Personnel System

• Although the government did not introduce the job classification system
suggested in the “Outline of Civil Service Reform,” it did amend the
National Civil Servants Law and introduced a personnel system based on
personnel evaluation that focused on abilities and service records.
• Personnel evaluation is defined as “the evaluation of service records that is
used for the basic information to manage personnel such as recruitment,
promotion or discharge based on the record of the employee’s ability or
result in working.”
• Employee salaries are also affected by this personnel evaluation, and each
minister has to evaluate employees’ performance regularly based on this
evaluation standard.
Recruitment of Diverse Human Resources
• The National Personnel Authority improved the recruitment exam for first-
class civil servants by introducing history and classics to cultural subjects,
requiring knowledge of economics for law specialists and vice versa, and
increasing the importance of the essay exam.
• The government also facilitated recruitment from the private sector by
allowing them to start at levels that are equivalent to the first-class civil
exam. The law of human resource exchange, amended in June 2006,
enables public servants to be employees at a private company.
• The “Basic Plan for a Gender-Equal Society” suggests promoting active
recruitment of females, setting the goal that 30% of recruitment be females
in the first-class civil exam.
• Each ministry had to follow this plan and ensure that females accounted for
25% of new employees in the first-class category in 2007. The recruitment
of females is approaching this goal.
• Establishing Proper Rules for Reemployment
• The government has adopted various rules to address the problem of
reemployment. Employees are now prohibited from helping retired officers

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 find reemployment, and incumbent officers are prohibited from searching
for reemployment at their related corporations.
• The Human Resource Exchange Center, headed by the chief cabinet
secretary, is now in charge of this. If executive bureaucrats gain
reemployment within 2 years after their retirement, they have to report it to
the prime minister.
• The government also created a Reemployment Watchdog Committee,
which investigates alleged violations of reemployment regulations and is
also in charge of exemptions relating to reemployment regulations.
• Importantly, an amendment of the Retirement Benefit Law was passed that
prevents employees from gaining multiple retirement benefits from
working at different public agencies.
• Improvement of Organizational Performance
• Efforts are underway to cut back the number of civil servants and to
implement streamlining processes. This includes staff training and
processes for transferring human resources when decreasing the number of
employees.
• Efforts have also been undertaken to eliminate overwork—for example, by
increasing the cost-consciousness of executives and making active use of
policies that allow people to start earlier or end later.