People aspiring for a career in civil service are declining in number.

The government is said to be trying to revive the waning popularity of this profession through work style reforms and review of the current employment examination system.

But we must point out that the public's loss of interest in becoming public servants has much to do with the bureaucracy's distorted relationship with politicians.

To maintain the quality of the nation's administrative standards, any government attempt to improve the situation must be preceded by extensive analyses of the current conditions.

The National Personnel Authority last month announced that it will move up the date of the National Public Employee Recruitment Examinations for career-track positions at central government ministries and agencies by about two weeks next year and by about a month the following year.

The purpose of holding the exam earlier is said to enable applicants to also apply for jobs in the private sector.

The authority has also decided to review the manner in which the test is conducted and also to extend the period of the test's validity for successful applicants.

Up to fiscal 2021, the number of applicants continued declining for five consecutive years. The 2021 number represented a whopping 30 percent drop from the fiscal 2012 level.

"The situation is critical from the standpoint of securing personnel needed to support the nation's administrative services," states the latest Annual Report on Public Employees.

Long gone is the era of post-World War II reconstruction when a select group of elite bureaucrats led the nation.

However, they still play a major role in restructuring various systems in keeping with socio-economic changes and building relationships with other nations to advance Japan's interests in international negotiations.

It is certainly vitally important to recruit people with such abilities by creating an environment conducive to it.

However, we were not impressed by the analyses and countermeasures presented by the National Personnel Authority as the third-party organ tasked with handling human resources matters for the central government.

Based on a survey last autumn of students who had just finished job hunting, the authority concluded that the decreasing number of applicants for central government jobs was "owed considerably to the students' negative feelings about the burden of preparing for the Public Employee Recruitment Examinations, as well as to their dim views of the working environment at government ministries and agencies."

In that survey, however, respondents who said "the nature of the job doesn't appeal to me" outnumbered those who were worried about long working hours.

And particularly among students who declined unofficial job offers from central government ministries and agencies, many gave their reasons as "recent scandals have lowered my image (of the bureaucracy)" and "I am unlikely to earn the respect of people by becoming a bureaucrat."

We believe the National Personnel Authority needs to go beyond just reviewing the employment test and working hours, and closely examine the nature of work itself.

One development that has significantly transformed the tasks of central government ministries and agencies was the move by the prime minister's office to take over the policy-forming initiative that formerly belonged to bureaucrats.

The reinforcement of the function of the prime minister's office did bring some benefits, in that it helped break down the bureaucracy's rigid "vertical structure" to expedite decision-making.

But on the other hand, this led to the underestimation of bureaucrats' expertise and know-how, which effectively undermined their freedom to speak out when necessary.

The disorganized mess that resulted from the distribution of "Abenomasks" facial coverings was symbolic. So were the scandals over the falsification of official documents at the Finance Ministry.

The National Personnel Authority is in a position to recommend an ideal civil service system for the nation. As such, its officials must come up with workable measures, and never turn a blind eye--out of some misguided sense of "loyalty"--to questionable relationships between politicians and bureaucrats.

While the prime minister's office was in the process of boosting its function, it should have simultaneously reinforced its accountability and the transparency of its policy-making procedures.

But that part of the task has remained untouched so far.

The longer this sort of "cherry picking" is allowed to go on, the more the problem will grow.

The unfinished task must be seen to right away.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 14