Young Bureaucrats Leaving Jobs: Restore a Sense of Satisfaction in Supporting One’s Country

Editorial

14:59 JST, January 21, 2025

If young bureaucrats who would support national governance in the near future are quitting their jobs one after another, it could lead to a decline in national strength. The factors behind the increase in these resignations should be analyzed and urgent measures taken to prevent them.

A survey by the National Personnel Authority has found that of about 620 people hired in fiscal 2014 as career-track national public servants — who are candidates for key posts in the future — about 140, or 23%, had resigned by the end of fiscal 2023. This means about one in four of that cohort of recruits left their jobs less than 10 years after being hired.

In addition, the number of bureaucrats who resigned in fiscal 2023 with less than 10 years of service reached a record high of 203.

Fast-track career bureaucrats commonly get promoted to deputy division director after six or seven years of employment. They are said to often gain knowledge through policy planning and other activities, and then move to a company with a high salary immediately after taking up a position with a certain level of responsibility.

Although this is an era in which changing jobs is not uncommon, bureaucrats working at central government ministries and agencies play a significant role in formulating necessary policies based on various statistics and issues. Such work should be very rewarding by nature.

However, in recent years, opposition parties have often called bureaucrats in and criticized them unnecessarily in the name of hearings. There has been no end to a spate of scandals involving bureaucrats themselves. Many bureaucrats may have become fed up with those situations.

Meanwhile, according to a survey conducted by the authority among career-track bureaucrats in their first year of service, the measure cited as most important for improving the appeal of their workplace was “raising the salary level,” followed by “reducing overtime and late-night work” and “making better use of telework and improving work efficiency.”

The personnel authority has been recommending raising starting salaries for several years now. The initial monthly salary for university graduates who become career-track bureaucrats is now ¥230,000.

The number of trading houses and consulting companies that offer starting salaries of over ¥300,000 per month is increasing, but with the government’s tight financial situation, it is unrealistic to match the salaries of bureaucrats to the highest levels of the private sector.

It is also necessary to actively support promotions for young bureaucrats who have achieved results in their work by revising the seniority-based personnel and pay systems and reflecting ability and performance in evaluations. In addition, it would be effective to improve benefit programs, through such measures as providing new housing for public servants close to their workplace.

Reform of the way bureaucrats work must also be promoted further.

In 2023, the ruling and opposition parties once again agreed to “strive to promptly notify [bureaucrats] of questions” at the Diet. Perhaps as a result of this move, the average time for bureaucrats to finish preparing responses for the ordinary Diet session last year was 12:48 a.m., about an hour earlier than in 2022, but long working hours still continued.

It is important for the ruling and opposition parties to work to further speed up notification of questions.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jan. 21, 2025)