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On April 6, in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, the DPJ’s Yuichi Goto made a speech regarding the revision of the National Public Service Act, which had previously been explained to the Diet by Minister of State for National Policy and Civil Service Reform Yoshito Sengoku.
Goto first pointed out the problems with the current civil service system as being: 1) bureaucratic control, 2) vertical administration, 3) amakudari (golden-parachuting). He praised the government proposal, calling it a historic revision, which will totally eliminate these problems. He then asked how the unification of personnel matters relating to senior bureaucrats would be undertaken in order to realize political control.
Sengoku replied that the proposed revision is only the first step in carrying out civil service reform, and expressed the government’s determination of going on to carry out a thorough and comprehensive reform of the system, which would include considering the way in which basic labor rights are applied to civil servants, and changing the work environment so that bureaucrats can work right up to retirement. He explained that in order to ensure that the administration of personnel matters relating to senior bureaucrats creates an administration that is focused on the national interest and is not confined to the interests of individual ministries it is necessary for personnel decisions to be made in a flexible manner under the guidance of the Cabinet Office. Sengoku said that such personnel matters would be unified under the authority of the Cabinet, a flexible system would be introduced, and personnel movements would be decided following discussions between the Prime Minister, the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the various persons having authority over personnel appointments.
Goto said that in order to correct the vertical compartment of the bureaucracy by unifying personnel decisions in this way, and to enable free movements of personnel between the various ministries and into Cabinet-related positions so as to nurture bureaucrats who work for the national interest rather than the interests of various ministries, it would be necessary to actively implement such a plan under the authority of the Cabinet Affairs Personnel Bureau (tentative translation), so that for example, the senior officials of various teams can be changed. He said that the proposed revision was historic in its clear prohibition of the facilitation of amakudari by the various ministries, said to amount to around 3000 cases, and asked what provision was being made to stop cases of amakudari in which former bureaucrats facilate the employment of bureaucrats from their former ministry at their current place of work, since such cases would not be covered by the revisions.
Sengoku said that the government proposal would eliminate the facilitation of amakudari by ministries, by prohibiting assistance with the reemployment of bureaucrats, with the exception of those officials who had been forced to leave their jobs due to organizational restructuring, as well as ensuring that assisting officials with reemployment does not generally take place. This will be accomplished through the newly established centre that has been formed to oversee the appointments of private-sector personnel and the appropriate reemployment of bureaucrats. He added that the legislation revision would ensure that the retirement of government officials takes place in a more appropriate manner. With regard to the situation where generations of bureaucrats from the same ministries have been reemployed by the same organization, Sengoku said that such cases are still currently being investigated. He stressed that if there are suspicions that such cases violate the rules on facilitating reemployment, the newly-formed committee that has been detailed to oversee the appropriate reemployment of bureaucrats would investigate. Should violations be found to exist, he said, the respective persons with authority for appointments would be advised to impose strict penalties.
At the end of his speech, Goto stressed that civil service reform is being implemented in order to “bring back an administrative bureaucracy which works on behalf of the nation”. He added that the Hatoyama administration was being called upon to guarantee trustworthy pensions, medical care, nursing care and childrearing, by carrying out further reforms, such as a 20% cut in overall personnel costs for civil servants. Goto closed by saying that he hoped the current proposal could be speedily implemented as a first step in this process.
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