The fiscal 2022 overtime budget for ministries and other central government offices topped 40 billion yen ($348 million) for the first time and even exceeded the amount they had requested.

The overtime allocation is up 23.8 percent from the amount in the initial budget for fiscal 2021. If spending on overtime from the supplementary budget is included, the increase is 17.5 percent year on year.

The Asahi Shimbun surveyed the overtime allowances contained in the draft initial general account budget, which the Lower House passed on Feb. 22.

For fiscal 2022, which starts in April, a total of 40.3 billion yen has been budgeted for overtime work at the headquarters of all 11 ministries, the Cabinet Office and the Cabinet Secretariat. The survey did not include allotments for their regional offices and other external organizations.

The 13 government offices in Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki district, the central seat of Japan’s bureaucracy, last summer requested a total of 38.5 billion yen in overtime funds in the initial budget.

Over the five previous years, the growth rate of overtime funds in the initial budget hovered roughly between 1 and 3 percent.

The Finance Ministry, which typically slashes budget requests through rigorous assessments, granted larger overtime budgets than requested by eight of the 13 government offices, according to the Asahi survey.

“The Finance Ministry told us to set aside a sum that would allow us to pay overtime at 100 percent,” an official with one of the government offices said.

YOUNG BUREAUCRATS QUITTING

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare had the highest year-on-year growth for its overtime budget, at 38.9 percent, to 5.53 billion yen. Ministry officials have been putting in extremely long working hours during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism was second, with its allotment rising 32.7 percent to 5.13 billion yen.

The overtime allocations grew nearly 30 percent for the Cabinet Office and the Cabinet Secretariat, and more than 20 percent for the environment and education ministries.

In March last year, the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga approved a document titled “personnel management guidelines.”

It called on ministries and agencies to get a better grasp of their employees’ working hours and instructed them to include in their fiscal 2022 budget requests any overtime allowances that cannot be covered by the fiscal 2021 allotments.

That resulted in the sharp increase in the overtime budgets.

In the private sector, a government-led initiative for “work-style reform” has made great headway after a law was amended to tighten regulations on overtime hours.

Central government employees, by contrast, are not covered by the Labor Standards Law. And there has been a tacit understanding by bureaucrats that they can be paid overtime only up to a certain limit.

However, some government officials are alarmed that the harsh working conditions have pushed young people away from seeking jobs as bureaucrats.

The number of applicants who took employment exams for career-track bureaucrats has shrunk for five straight years.

The trend is a driving factor behind the increase in overtime payments.

Kasumigaseki’s bureaucrats often work deep into the night, especially when the Diet is in session or when a budget is being compiled.

They also must remain on standby for long hours for notices sent by lawmakers about questions that will be asked in the Diet. Once these notices arrive, the bureaucrats stay well into the night preparing responses to be read by Cabinet ministers.

The bureaucrats also have to deal with lawmakers’ written questions to the Cabinet. The answers to these questions must be approved by the Cabinet.

A growing number of young bureaucrats have quit their jobs because of the work environment.

“A sense of ‘pride’ in working for the nation is not enough to keep young people from leaving,” a Finance Ministry bureaucrat said. “There should be efforts to improve the current working conditions and raise the satisfaction level of bureaucrats.”

Between 4,000 and 5,000 central government employees voluntarily leave their jobs every year before reaching the mandatory retirement age.

In fiscal 2019, 104 career-track bureaucrats in their 20s quit their jobs for personal reasons, more than quadruple the figure for fiscal 2013.