Civil Service Of Japan
The Japanese civil service has over one million employees, with 400,000 workers in postal service, or Japan Post (since 2003), being the biggest part, whilst the Japanese Self-Defence Force being the second biggest, with 247,000 personnel. In the post-war period, this figure has been even higher, but the privatization of a large number of public corporations since the 1980s, among them NTT and Japanese National Railways, already reduced the number. Postal privatization is the next step. Still, the government as an employer is held in high regard. After the breakdown of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s, wages and privileges in the private sector were cut, but public service workers still enjoy many of the benefits introduced in the boom years.
National government civil servants are divided into "special" and "regular" categories. Appointments in the special category are governed by political or other factors and do not involve competitive examinations. This category includes cabinet ministers, heads of independent agencies, members of the Self-Defense Forces, Diet officials, and ambassadors. The core of the civil service is composed of members of the regular category, who are recruited through competitive examinations. This group is further divided into junior service and upper professional levels, the latter forming a well-defined civil service elite.
Read more about Civil Service Of Japan: Elite Bureaucrats
Famous quotes containing the words civil service, civil, service and/or japan:
“Now for civil service reform. Legislation must be prepared and executive rules and maxims. We must limit and narrow the area of patronage. We must diminish the evils of office-seeking. We must stop interference of federal officers with elections. We must be relieved of congressional dictation as to appointments.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“[I]t is a civil Cowardice to be backward in asserting what you ought to expect, as it is a military Fear to be slow in attacking when it is your Duty.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“For those parents from lower-class and minority communities ... [who] have had minimal experience in negotiating dominant, external institutions or have had negative and hostile contact with social service agencies, their initial approaches to the school are often overwhelming and difficult. Not only does the school feel like an alien environment with incomprehensible norms and structures, but the families often do not feel entitled to make demands or force disagreements.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)
“I do not know that the United States can save civilization but at least by our example we can make people think and give them the opportunity of saving themselves. The trouble is that the people of Germany, Italy and Japan are not given the privilege of thinking.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)