On a dark and windy night, two thieves entered the warehouse, looking panicked, looking around, struggling to move the goods out.
But because the "crime experience" was not rich, the two were quickly arrested.
This seemingly ordinary theft case has attracted a lot of attention because of the identities of the two.
The thieves were father and son, of whom the father was a member of parliament in Kiho Town, Mie Prefecture, Japan.
Under interrogation by the police, the father and son confided the reason why people couldn't laugh or cry: "I want money".
They stole 14 gutter covers and scrap iron, valued at only about 50,000 yen (about 2,400 yuan).
The "desperate" of the father and son is just a microcosm of the living conditions of Japanese politicians.
In Japan, civil servants have long since "stepped down from the altar" and have been reduced to the bottom of the chain of contempt.
After going ashore, go to sea
When Japanese civil servants decided to admit them, they all thought it was the beginning of a better life, but they found that the day they "went ashore" was the happiest day.
In Japan, civil servants have always been strictly forbidden to work part-time, and if they are discovered, they will be severely punished, but this does not stop the Japanese from doing everything they can to "make money".
A civil servant in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, wrote novels part-time to support his family, and in order to concentrate on writing novels, he even lied that he was unwell and needed to leave his job without pay.
Hiding from the city government, he published four novels and earned 3.2 million yen (about 180,000 yuan).
After taking the public examination to "go ashore", going to the sea has gradually become the norm for Japanese civil servants.
In 2023, a 24-year-old female civil servant who works at the Tokyo Metropolitan Tax Office was found to be working part-time at 8 custom shops at the same time.
Not only does she work at night, but she also makes full use of her sick leave, working part-time 165 days a year, and spending all the money she earns on the cowherd.
In addition to earning money part-time at a custom shop, three female civil servants from the Tokyo Metropolitan Tax Office also work as a "father", dating wealthy middle-aged and elderly men in exchange for money and expensive gifts.
A firefighter at the Mooka Fire Department in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, was discovered by his colleagues that he had secretly become an AV actor, and he had filmed more than 50 works since his debut.
Such news appeared one after another, and representatives of the Japanese government had to frequently bow to the camera and apologize.
One reason why Japanese civil servants are trying to "toss" is that they are very poor.
In 2021, Japan's National Personnel Institute conducted a survey, which found that the average annual income of civil servants aged 25-30 was 3.78 million yen (equivalent to 179,000 yuan), while the average annual income of workers was 4.24 million yen (equivalent to 201,000 yuan).
In a large company like Toyota, the average annual income of employees in this age group reaches 8.58 million yen (equivalent to 407,000 yuan).
On the one hand, there is a lack of advantageous income, and on the other hand, there are soaring prices, and Japanese civil servants serve "iron rice bowls", but they may not even have enough to eat.
If you say that you are a civil servant on a blind date, you are likely to be disliked by the other party.
But just two or three decades ago, civil service was a sought-after profession in Japan.
At that time, Japan's bubble economy burst, and the unemployment rate exceeded 10%, and if you don't make a big mistake, you won't be unemployed.
At that time, the recruitment ratio of civil servants was generally 30:1, and there were 195 people competing for a position, and many of the top students from Japan's top universities were eliminated.
Many college students begin to prepare for the civil service exam from their freshman year, attending classes at school during the day and going to public institutions to make up for them in the evenings and weekends.
People are enthusiastic and willing to gamble for the exam.
The afterglow of that feverish era, after twenty or thirty years, has become cold today.
"Black Kasumigaseki"
Kasumigaseki is located in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, which is home to Japanese government departments, with imposing buildings, clean streets, and the smell of power wafting through the air.
In a report released in 2019 by the Japan Institute of Bureaucratic Awareness Survey, 97.6% of public servants said, "It is important for them to contribute to the public good." ”
When most people first step here, they have a sense of conviction that they will "make a life for the people".
But now, the area is known to civil servants as the "Black Kasumigaseki" and is full of their negativity.
The collapse of faith begins with overtime hours.
According to Japanese law, if you work more than 80 hours of overtime per month, you have crossed the threshold of death from overwork.
However, a 2020 survey of 50,000 civil servants by the Cabinet Personnel Bureau of Japan showed that 30% of those surveyed worked more than 80 hours of overtime per month, and nearly 3,000 worked more than 100 hours.
In Japan, the Labor Standards Act does not cover national civil servants, so civil servants are not protected by the "overtime hours rule".
Beneath the cold figures, the suffering of individual civil servants is concrete.
Even if a female civil servant is pregnant, she can only sleep three or four hours a day.
Some people have to deal with 500 mails a day, and they don't have their first meal until after 10 o'clock in the evening.
But that's not the end of it, she has to work until about half past two in the morning every day.
Many offices have nap rooms, but many choose to take a short break in their office chairs to avoid oversleeping and delaying work.
A top student who graduated from the University of Tokyo had a dream of changing the world with this job as a starting point, but after a year on the job, he was faced with a maximum of 178 hours of overtime per month.
He was depressed by this workflow, and in the end, all he left for this world was a suicide note.
In addition to the excessive overtime hours, the boredom of work content and the difficulty of promotion have also become a mountain weighing on the heads of civil servants.
Even today, many public offices in Japan still have their registration information written by hand, and they can only communicate with each other on landlines.
When civil servants look for information, they are often faced with decades of accumulated paper materials, which really consumes their enthusiasm and adds a lot of unnecessary workload.
Although Japan has also been carrying out paperless office reform in recent years, it has not been effective.
In such an office environment, civil servants also have to strictly follow the process and approve at all levels.
In the 2023 Japanese drama "Restart Life", it takes nearly a month for civil servants to buy a mechanical pencil.
In Xiaguan, which focuses on seniority, newcomers must look at the face of their bosses and do things, maintain respect for their seniors, and even ask their bosses for instructions if they want to go to the toilet.
If the seniors do not retire or leave their jobs, the newcomers will not have the opportunity to be promoted.
The demands placed on civil servants are becoming more and more demanding, and civil servants are not privileged and subject to various constraints.
A civil servant in Osaka was suspended for three months for violating the prohibition of public servants from driving to work in a private car several times a year, and was given a transportation allowance of 40,000 yen.
Corruption, peachy journalism, and poor handling of economic problems, scandals about the bureaucracy have emerged one after another over the years, gradually shattering the sacred aura of civil servants.
If the people are not satisfied with the results of the handling of some public affairs, all their grievances will be vented on the civil servants who are in charge.
Because of their identity, they couldn't fight back when they were scolded, so they could only smile at each other.
A large part of the Japanese public thinks that civil servants are a group of people who get paid but don't do anything.
Once, a civil servant took his child to see a doctor, and someone cut in front of him and said, "I paid taxes to support you, so I should be ahead of you." ”
It is not surprising that civil servants seem to have become the least "cost-effective" job in Japan.
The decline is irreversible
There is an urgent need to change the status quo.
In addition to Japan's aging population and declining birthrate, the government is increasingly short of personnel, and the pressure on the existing civil service is increasing.
The Japanese government has made a lot of efforts to get more people to apply for the civil service examination.
On August 7 last year, the Japanese Personnel Yuan recommended to the Japanese Diet and Cabinet that the average monthly salary of national civil servants in the 2023 fiscal year should be increased by 0.96% (3,869 yen, about 194 yuan), and the bonus should be increased by 4.5 months, which is the highest increase in 30 years.
At the same time, the Personnel Agency proposes to implement a "three-day rest system", and civil servants who work long working hours on weekdays can take "flexible rest" and take one more day off per week.
In addition to the actual salary increase, the Japanese government has also stepped up its propaganda offensive.
They invited idols to shoot advertisements for the public examination, invited beautiful celebrities to be civil servants for a day, and used the lens to beautify the working environment of civil servants as much as possible.
They make posters and short films for public examinations in the way of hot-blooded animation, and create star civil servants, hoping to attract young people who want to change the world.
Even with all these efforts, it is still difficult for the government to complete the task of "pulling people's heads".
According to data released by the Japanese Personnel Agency, the number of applicants for comprehensive positions in national civil servants has decreased by nearly half in the past 10 years.
In 2022, the success rate of "going ashore" for Japanese civil servants is 29.4%, which means that at least 1 out of 4 people who apply for the civil service will be admitted.
The University of Tokyo, known as the "cradle of civil servants," had only 217 students admitted to the civil service in 2022, the lowest number since 1998.
In 2023, 47 local governments across Japan will start hiring, and 45 local governments will not fill up civil service positions, especially in specialized fields such as civil engineering and veterinary medicine.
Oizumi Town, Gunma Prefecture, located in a remote mountainous area, has a severe shortage of personnel, and jobs will be open to foreigners with permanent residency in Japan from 2024.
According to statistics, in Xiaguan, the number of young people who voluntarily submitted resignation applications increased by four times compared to six years ago, increasing to 87.
Each year, only 20 to 30 people are recruited for comprehensive positions in various provinces and departments.
Japan's central government is no longer able to keep up with the pace at which employees are leaving.
The office building of the civil servants seems to have turned from a besieged city into a prison, and the people outside are reluctant to enter, and the people inside are desperately trying to escape.
For young people facing a job search, few are willing to gamble their careers and board a sinking ship.
In the minds of the Japanese, the iron rice bowl of civil servants has long been rusted.
Whether it is an iron rice bowl or a wooden rice bowl, it is just a container for rice after all.
More and more people are putting more and more people in the first place than what bowl to eat, perhaps filling their stomachs and living with dignity.
Resources:
1. "Japanese Civil Servants, Rushing to Resign" Hardcore Kanban
2. "Young Japanese Youth, Why Don't You Want to Be a Civil Servant?"
3. "The Japanese Don't Want to Be Civil Servants Anymore" Correct Solution
4. "The admission ratio is 4:1, why don't Japanese young people like to take the civil service exam?" Nan Zhou knows
5. "There is a public understanding in Japan that the working environment of civil servants is darker than that of black-hearted companies" Bottom-line thinking
6. "Japanese civil servants are poor and crazy?steal 14 manhole covers overnight for 200 yuan of living expenses, go to work and write novels to make a living, netizens: The iron rice bowl is rusty!" British newspaper sister
7. "The Civil Servants of the Japanese Tax Bureau "Go to the Sea"! The custom shop works hard and looks for a sugar daddy, but all the money is spent on the cowherd..." Those things in the UK
8. "Desperate Japanese Young People Are Escaping the 'System'" Look at the World Lab
9. "When Civil Servants Can't Save Japan, Disillusioned University of Tokyo Graduates Are Leaving the Central Government" Liquid Youth
10. "Here, No One Takes the Public Examination" South Wind Window
11. "Why Japanese People Don't Want to Take the Civil Service Examination?" University of Tokyo Students: "Death from Overwork" and Low Income, China Economic Weekly
12. "Japanese Civil Servants, Rushing to Resign" INSIGHT Vision
13. "When a Wine Girl, Stealing Manhole Covers, the B-side Life of Japanese Civil Servants" is the most Chinese