Column 　Finance and the Social Security System 　2018.02.23

【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.41: Public Servant

In this column series, Yukihiro Matsuyama, Research Director at CIGS introduces the latest information about aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan with data of international comparison.
Aging Society&Others
Yukihiro MATSUYAMA
Yukihiro MATSUYAMA
Research Director

Table 1 shows the 2018 budget and the number of public servants based on the required number of regular staff. The total personnel expense for local public servants is 20.3 trillion out of 26.8 trillion yen. It turns out that the restructuring of local governments is important for fiscal rebuilding. Therefore, as shown in Table 2, the reduction of the number of local public servants is being promoted.

On the other hand, great regional disparities have already surfaced in terms of how the population is declining. This suggests that it is necessary to further consolidate municipalities. Japan is also behind developed countries in terms of ICT utilization in administrative services. It seems possible to greatly reduce the number of public servants by using artificial intelligence (AI) for administrative affairs processing. However, it is indispensable to raise the growth potential of the Japanese economy by relaxing labor shortage and increasing productivity through the management reform of public administrative agencies.


Table 1 Number of civil servants and personnel expenses
(Regular staff-based FY 2018 budget)

180221_matsuyama_fig01.png

（Source）Ministry of Finance



Table 2 Breakdown of local public servants by occupation type
(Including part-time temporary staff)

180221_matsuyama_fig02.png

（Source）Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications