According to Japan's "Modern Business", for many people, the state civil servant may be a decent profession, but in Japan, the situation is just the opposite. Kasumi-seki, the epicenter of Japan's state administration, is being ruthlessly squeezed by endless "unpaid overtime."
According to Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" reported on March 6, most officials in the Japanese Cabinet Office's epidemic countermeasure promotion office had an average overtime of 122 hours in January, and some officials even worked as much overtime as 378 hours, far exceeding the 80 hours stipulated by the "overwork death" line.
According to statistics, the annual "unpaid overtime pay" of Japanese national civil servants is about 14 billion yen, which has caused great harm to the physical and mental health of civil servants. As a result, more and more young Japanese people are no longer enrolled in The National Civil Service Examination in Japan. According to a recent statistic, the number of Japanese applicants for the national civil service has decreased by more than 60 percent over the past 20 years.
"Black Kasumi Pass"
Work from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. the next day
Until 2019, Chimasa Yasuhiro was an official at Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. After resigning, he published a book called "Black Kasugami", which reflected the bitter life of Japanese state civil servants working in Kasugasaki and exposed the "cruel" working environment in Japan's central provincial governments. Kasumi-seki is an area of less than 1 square kilometer in the center of Tokyo, where most of Japan's central government office buildings are concentrated, so Kasumigaseki is also synonymous with The Japanese central government.
Endless overtime has made more and more young Japanese people reluctant to enter politics (according to Modern Business)
In the book "Black Kasugami", Chimasa Yasuhiro cites the timetable of a young cadre during the Diet to illustrate how harsh the working conditions of Japan's central government organs really are:
7:00 In order to allow media to report on the policies under discussion, he quickly completed the questions and answers that the minister might be asked at the press conference in his own home. With the consent of the superior, the note of reply was to be sent to the minister's secretary 9:00 Go to work. The director who returned from the meeting of the political party was tasked with producing explanatory materials for the designated members of Parliament 9:30 Commencement of explanatory materials in accordance with the instructions of the Director-General 10:30 Instructions materials are complete 11:00 Completion of relevant information to be discussed at the Review Conference 11:15 Help members of Congress complete a speech at a local event 11:35 Start of consultation from local governments 12:20 Revise the information of the Council according to the instructions of the Section Chief 13:00 Submit the already written message to the supervisor for review and revise it according to the superior's opinion 14:05 In order to hear the opinions of a member of parliament, he went to his office 14:30 Comments begin 15:30 End of hearing 15:45 Returns units 16:00 Discuss the explanatory materials prepared in the morning according to the instructions of the Director-General in the classroom 16:30 The class discussion ends and changes are made according to the comments 16:50 Explain the contents of the council materials to the Section Chief 17:00 Preparation of a reply for members of Parliament 18:35 The next day, a press conference with ministers will be held, and questions will be received from the press club, and corresponding answer notes will be prepared according to the questions 19:30 Submit the reply note to the superior for review before sending it to the Secretary of the Minister 20:00 Submit the statement of defence for the members of Congress to the superior for review 20:30 The resignation of the finally revised member of Parliament shall be sent by e-mail to the other mp's office 21:00 The Secretary of the Minister calls and asks for a revision of the note to be used at the press conference the next day 21:30 Print out the revised answer note and send it to the broadcast room 22:30 Buy dinner before the convenience store in the office building closes, then have dinner 24:00 Received instructions from the Director General to amend the information. Then send the revised information to the section chief for review 24:30 The General Affairs Division of the Cabinet Office requests that the statement of defence produced by members of Parliament be reviewed 02:00 Amendments to the Statement of Defence based on the opinion of the Cabinet Office General Affairs Division 03:00 The examination of the Statement of Defence by the Cabinet Office's General Affairs Division is concluded 03:15 Send the Statement of Defence and reference materials to the Cabinet Legislative Affairs Bureau by e-mail 03:20 Leave for work ----------
Working at home from 7 a.m., the young civil servant didn't leave work until after 3 a.m. the next day. During this period, there is no rest time at all, and it is necessary to work for 20 hours of continuous work with high intensity. It was almost dawn when he took a taxi home. Since there was a congressional meeting the next day, he returned home with a brief rest, and then began the day at 7 or 8 a.m. Japan's diet usually lasts about half a year, and this kind of high-intensity labor will cause immeasurable physical and mental damage to any ordinary person.
The last 20 years
60 per cent reduction in the number of applicants for the National Civil Service Examination
The situation of ultra-long overtime hours in Xiaguan has become a hot topic, but in fact, this is not news. In Japan, whether it is civil servants, politicians, the media, or even ordinary people, it is known that Kasumi-kan is a "city that never sleeps" and "a place where taxis grow in long lines". In recent years, the intensity of work in Kasumigaseki may have been greater than before, because after the Japanese government reduced the number of civil servants in the central government organs, one person now has to take on the work of the previous three people.
As a national civil servant, the working hours stipulated in Japan's Service Time Law are 7 hours and 45 minutes a day and 38 hours and 45 minutes a week. Work beyond this time is counted as overtime. However, for State civil servants, labour laws are largely not applicable to them. First, because "many times, public affairs occur temporarily or urgently", in addition, the governors at all levels of the provincial departments may issue orders at any time, and grass-roots civil servants have to implement them.
As a result, more and more young people are withdrawing from the Japanese civil service. According to a 2019 survey by Japan's Cabinet Personnel Bureau, about 15 percent of male state civil servants (under 30 years of age) and 10 percent of female state civil servants (under 30 years of age) said they wanted to resign. Taking the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare as an example, about 20% of respondents said they were "unwilling" in the questionnaire option of "Do you want to stay in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare after 2 years?"
In addition, over the past 20 years, the number of applicants for the national civil service examination in Japan has decreased by about 60%. The endless overtime has made the younger generation in Japan feel the "charm" of the national civil servants.
"Unpaid Overtime"
It is about 14 billion yen per year
The salaries of state civil servants are derived from the state budget and require the consent of Congress. Therefore, more often, Japan's national civil servants work overtime for free. There are about 300,000 people in ordinary positions in Japan's national civil service, and there is no budget to subsidize them with overtime that can occur anytime, anywhere. According to a budget, Japanese state civil servants pay about 14 billion yen a year for "unpaid overtime."
On December 25, 2020, Japan's Minister for Administrative Reform Taro Kono released a survey at a press conference showing that among civil servants working in Japan's central government departments, the overtime hours of young civil servants are being extended, and 30% of civil servants in their 20s have overtime hours exceeding the "overwork death" line, that is, more than 80 hours of overtime per month.
Endless overtime has caused great physical and mental harm to Japan's young state civil servants (According to Modern Business)
It is reported that among the 51,000 civil servants in various departments of the Central Government of Japan, the average daily overtime time was 1 hour and 50 minutes in October, and 2 hours and 2 minutes in November. Reserve cadres aged 20 to 30 work particularly long hours, with an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes of overtime per day in October and 3 hours and 21 minutes in November. In addition, among the reserve cadres in their 20s and 30s, about 30% and 15% work more than 80 hours of overtime per month, respectively.
According to Japanese media reports, the new crown virus epidemic has increased the burden on Japanese civil servants. After the state of emergency in Tokyo and other places, the average overtime hours of the staff in charge of epidemic prevention affairs in the Japanese cabinet office in January this year was about 122 hours, of which the staff with the longest overtime worked 378 hours in January. The average overtime hours of National Civil Servants in Japan in 2019 were 348 hours per year, and the overtime hours of this employee exceeded the one-year average in one month.
In January, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which is also responsible for epidemic prevention, added 226 hours of overtime, and 177 employees worked more than 100 hours of overtime (Japanese media reported that the overtime "overwork death" line is 80 hours), of which 28 people exceeded 150 hours.
Red Star News reporter Luo Tian
Edited by Guo Yu
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