Setting a Target for Net Reduction in Government Personnel
The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy held a meeting in early June to discuss "Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Structural Reform in 2005 (proposed draft)." On the question of how to reach the target of net reduction in the total cost of government personnel, Prime Minister Koizumi stated, to the dissatisfaction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, "it is extremely important to leave what the private sector can do to the private sector and what local governments can do to local governments. In this sense, too, a target for net reduction is possible; I believe that we have no choice but small government if we take into account the current fiscal situation." In line with this, the focus of attention henceforth will be the setting of a concrete numerical target.
The official number of national civil servants has shown a slight downward trend in recent years, following a sharp decline from approximately 840,000 to approximately 330,000 between fiscal years 2000 and 2003, occasioned by the establishment of Japan Post and a number of independent administrative institutions. In fiscal 2005, the reduction is expected to be a mere 0.2 percent, or 645 civil servants, from the previous fiscal year.
The number of local government personnel, on the other hand, totaled approximately 3.08 million as of April 2004, a reflection of the 4.6 percent net reduction in the five years between 1999 and 2004. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has already compiled new guidelines for local government reform, in which a net reduction by another 4.6 percent or more has been established as a target between fiscal years 2005 and 2009.
In the meantime, Mr. Sasamori, president of Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation), stated that if the current system for setting civil servants' wages by the National Personnel Authority is altered so that the government takes the initiative to cut labor costs and the number of personnel, civil servants should be given the three major rights of labor, i.e., the right to organize, bargain collectively, and dispute.
The labor cost of civil servants in the national budget accounts for about 10 percent of the government's general expenditure, totaling 4.7 trillion yen this fiscal year. Under such circumstances, the calls for a slimmer government by cutting the number of personnel seems likely to drown out the long-held demand of labor unions for their three major rights. Overall, the Koizumi cabinet seems to be facing a tough struggle, since it set the cutback of government personnel as a target at the beginning of its term, and it has now extended the current Diet session in order to ensure passage of a bill to privatize Japan Post.
