A group of young volunteer bureaucrats launched a campaign regarding work style reforms for themselves and other bureaucrats.
Under the name "Mirai no Kasumigaseki" (the Kasumigaseki district of the future), about 10 bureaucrats who had been working for ministries for three years or fewer banded together regardless of their ministries in autumn last year and began analyzing challenges facing their own work styles and thinking up solutions.
The team was formed after they saw Taro Kono take up the post of administrative and regulatory reform minister.
The mass retirement of young bureaucrats due to long working hours has been a problem, and Shuntaro Hori, a 25-year-old employee at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, called for bureaucrats to raise their voices as a concerned group.
Under the project, members conducted a survey and reported it to Kono, including that the average overtime working hours of young bureaucrats between April and September last year was 89 hours per month, exceeding the 80 hours per month deemed as the "death-from-overwork line."
Based on the recommendations, Kono compiled a work style reform guideline, which includes the improvement of Diet-related work.
In January, Hori and other members held an online meeting inviting former bureaucrats who had quit soon after beginning their jobs. About 60 people participated in the meeting, with one asking, for example, "Do you regret quitting?"
One of the reasons for the long working hours of bureaucrats is the way they deal with the Diet, where face-to-face explanations are customary. However, the practice has been criticized, and there are moves to change it. Whether the situation will improve remains uncertain, however.
Fewer people are applying to work as bureaucrats.
"Being able to solve social problems is one appeal unique to bureaucratic work," Hori said.
It was encouraging to learn there are young bureaucrats who are taking a step back from their immediate work and getting involved reforming their own work styles. The future of Kasumigaseki seems to be a bit brighter.
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