Japanese Young People Away From The "Iron Rice Bowl": Only 14,000 People Across The Country To Apply For The Examination, Pay Raises Do Not Want To Be Civil Servants

As a civil servant in Japan, you can take 3 days off each week?
On August 7, the Japanese Personnel Authority to the Japanese parliament and cabinet proposal, 2023 fiscal year national civil servants should increase the average monthly salary of 0.96% (3869 yen, about 194 yuan), the bonus should be increased to 4.5 months of monthly salary, the increase hit a 30-year high. At the same time, it is possible to implement the "three-day weekly rest system", that is, in addition to Saturday and Sunday, civil servants who work long hours on weekdays are allowed to take advantage of the system of flexible working hours, and take an additional day off each week.

In August last year, the Japan Personnel Agency also recommended that the Diet and Cabinet raise the average monthly salary for general positions in the national civil service in 2022 by 921 yen (about 46 yuan), and increase the bonus to 4.4 months' salary.

Behind the Japanese government's desire to keep raising the pay of civil servants is a harsh reality: more and more young Japanese, are not willing to take the public service exam.

Compared to 23,000 applicants in 2012, only 14,000 people will apply for the civil service in 2023, which is the second lowest number ever.

Obviously, it is an iron rice bowl with stable treatment, why do Japanese young people avoid it?
01 Harder than 996
In Japan, what is the experience of being a national civil servant?

NHK has tracked and filmed a day in the life of a civil servant in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, her name is Eugene Wakawa, mainly responsible for food safety issues.

As soon as she got to work in the morning, Eugene Wakawa started to get into work, and her main job that day was to accompany the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare to the Diet, where she was questioned by legislators on various policies. Wakawa has to help the minister prepare the materials for the questioning, and she also has to deal with the questioning by the legislators outside the Diet.

On this day, Wakawa took the subway twice, traveling between Kasumigaseki (where the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is located) and Nagata-cho (where the Diet is located) to the Diet Hall, and spent more than an hour on the road alone.
When she returned at noon, Eugene Wakawa didn't even eat lunch and continued to bury herself in her work.

At 6:15 p.m., the normal time for civil servants to leave work, Wakawa's work for the day was only half done.
What awaited Eugene Wakawa next was a series of breathless work: from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., a meeting; at 8:00 p.m., sorting out information; and at 9:00 p.m., reporting to her supervisor about the parliamentary questioning.

At 10 p.m., Wakagawa, who hadn't had lunch yet, was finally able to eat pasta bought at a convenience store. And, there's no rest while eating; she has to confirm the incoming e-mails. The number of e-mails received on this day was said to be 500.

She was busy until 12:00 a.m., when she had to print out the day's materials, and 1:30 a.m., when she had to report to her supervisor about other work.
Until 2:30 a.m., Kazukawa finally ended the day's work and took a taxi home.

"I chose this job with the idea of making more people live a happy life, but I can't take care of myself, I have too much workload every day, I often get off work late at night, and my health has deteriorated." Kachikawa said.

Wakagawa's work than what is often called "996" is also tired, and like Wakagawa so overworked Japanese national civil servants there are many. Previously, Japan had released a data, nearly 40% of the civil servants overtime time of more than 100 hours a month, which has greatly exceeded the Japan set the "overwork death overtime limit" - 80 hours.

In the words of a young civil servant working at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, this is a "prison province", and working here is like "walking into the grave of life" in advance.

The most outrageous was that during the epidemic of 2021, a civil servant in charge of epidemic prevention worked 378 hours of overtime in a single month. This news shocked all of Japan, then responsible for epidemic prevention work minister Yasunori Nishimura had to come out to apologize, then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also made a speech on this, he said, excessive overtime affects the health of civil servants, we must strive to minimize this situation.

02 Away from the "iron rice bowl"
In fact, in Japan, the treatment of civil servants is not bad, on average, even higher than many enterprises.

According to the Japan Economic News reported that the average annual income of Japan's national civil servants for 6.3 million yen (about 320,000 yuan), compared with an average annual income of 4.36 million yen (about 220,000 yuan), the average annual income of private enterprise staff.

Obviously, the salaries of Japanese civil servants are generally higher than those of office workers in enterprises, and the income is more stable and the benefits are better.
But young Japanese nowadays just don't want to go.

The Japan Personnel Institute has conducted a survey on students' willingness to work. Regarding the reasons for not choosing the national civil service, 76% of the students answered that "it is difficult to study and prepare for the national civil service examination", and 55% of the students said that "there seems to be a lot of overtime work and late-night and early-morning work".

One University of Tokyo student told NHK, "Civil service has never been on my list of options after graduation. I heard from my seniors at the university that there is a lot of overtime and hard work [as a civil servant]."

At the same time, more and more Japanese civil servants are resigning.
The Japan Personnel Agency, which is responsible for managing the country's civil servants, said 76 people resigned after less than 10 years of service in 2013; 116 resigned in 2018, the first time the number of resignations exceeded 100; and the number increased to 139 in 2019 and 109 in 2020.

Another survey showed that one in seven male civil servants in Japan under the age of 30 said they would resign within one to three years.

Kasumigaseki, the administrative center of Japan
Kasumigaseki is the administrative hub of Japan, where the headquarters of many of Japan's central administrative agencies are located. Taxi drivers in the neighborhood point to these administrative buildings and say, "Look at the lights in the windows upstairs, when do they ever go out? I've driven people here, and as soon as I get in the car, there are people shouting, 'I'm exhausted,' 'I'm at the end of my rope,' and others snoring themselves to sleep before long."

"Once I gave a ride to a civil servant who was about to leave his job, and he said he could finally say goodbye to such hell! I suppose the job is pretty brutal." The driver added.
With young people reluctant to apply for the job and a shortage of manpower in various departments, the Japanese government is aware of the problem and has also set out to change the environment in which civil servants are employed in the hope of attracting and retaining talent.

On August 7, Japan's Personnel Agency proposed to the government that the civil service duty time law be adjusted to allow civil servants across the country to use a flexible work schedule, giving them the option of taking three days off per week, no matter what the reason.

This extra day off would be taken by extending the working hours on other workdays, maintaining a total labor time of 155 hours in total for four weeks.

The ESC also recommends that Japanese government agencies guarantee employees at least 11 hours of rest from the end of their shift until their next shift.

Previously, Japanese civil servants were required to work at least 38 hours per week, according to Japanese regulations. Except for special positions such as the Self-Defense Forces, most civil servants' days off fall on Saturdays and Sundays. Civil servants can only apply for flexible working hours if they have the need to raise children and take care of the elderly, so that they can have an extra day off during the week.

As to whether this proposal can really be implemented, I am afraid we have to wait for time to prove it.

A student from the University of Tokyo is not convinced about civil servants' leave: "The so-called leave issue always gives people a vague impression. Civil servants don't necessarily get a good rest even if they have a vacation."