[ Nippon Keidanren ] [ Journal ]
Messages from "Economic Trend", August 2008

Reform of the civil service system - a small first step

Terunobu MAEDA
Vice Chairman, Nippon Keidanren
President & CEO, Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.

The Japanese civil service system had come to be regarded as one of the most important social systems with its contribution to the process of Japan's modernization after the Meiji Era to become the second largest economy in the world. However, the over-centralized, over-rigid system has largely deviated from the needs of society and the Japanese public, and as a result, the system has come to be criticized by everyone. But nothing can be changed solely by criticism.

Private companies have a higher regard for persons who offer concrete solutions than for persons who only point out problems. This is because nothing can be changed unless problems are solved.

From the Koizumi administration onwards, privatization and discontinuation of public enterprises such as the privatization of the postal service, except for enterprises that require operation by the public sector, have started on a large scale for the first time with the blessing of the political leadership. Structural reform has started even in the hitherto sacred ground of the public sector. On the other hand, reform of the civil service system has not advanced so far even though the cost is borne completely by the Japanese public. Now a bill to reform the Japanese civil service system has been enacted on June 6th, at the end of the Diet session, with its approval by the upper house after negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties. As there will be a lot of obstacles encountered in the implementation process, the proposals in the report by the Commission regarding Comprehensive Reform of the Civil Service System published in February this year should be drawn upon. I would like to focus on the third of the seven main areas of reform mentioned in the report, "Appropriate Evaluation." The report states, "A fair and transparent mechanism must be assured by conducting a relative evaluation among persons of the same level of position, irrespective of seniority." Replacing the existing absolute evaluation with a relative evaluation, which is at the core of this reform, is definitely meaningful.

Anyone can understand the absurdity of applying the same evaluation at recruitment consistently through a person's career until their retirement. If the other six reforms are accomplished as well as the evaluation issue, unreasonable criticism of public servants will decrease. Furthermore, an extreme reform of the governance structure and the establishment of administrative decentralization by introducing a regional system will see the completion of a new framework where both the public and private sector can tackle together the many problems that lie ahead in Japan's future. The key to the success of the comprehensive reform of the public sector lies not only in the introduction of a regional system but also the effective operation of that system using a streamlined administration process.


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