Civil Service of Japan

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.