Japanese govt compiles textbook for fostering young bureaucrats

The Yomiuri Shimbun

November 23, 2021

The Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs for the first time has compiled a textbook for national public servants in managerial posts, offering guidance in such areas as creating a better work environment and devising methods for training subordinates.

The bureau has recently been facing the problems of young bureaucrats quitting early in their careers and fewer college graduates wanting to enter public service.

The new instructional aid is aimed at fixing the current situation of long hours and make the young workers gain more fulfillment from their jobs.

The 86-page management textbook spells out the desired workplace, stating it should be a “team in which questions can be frankly asked, opinions stated, and mistakes acknowledged.”

Managers are encouraged to nurture the next generation of bureaucrats through periodic one-on-one meetings and the setting of “adequately challenging goals.”

To lessen workloads, the textbook emphasizes that “sorting out assignments is the role of management.”

The bureau started this month to use the textbook in training sessions for office heads and those in equivalent posts. From now, it plans to apply it to deputy section heads and the equivalent.

The entire textbook has been posted in Japanese on the bureau’s website.