"Who Wants to Be a Civil Servant These Days?" Japan on High Alert as Technical Positions Receive Zero Applicants

Widening Wage Gap with Private Sector Fuels Youth Aversion

Labor Shortage Hits Kobe Following Sagamihara and Niigata

According to a report by Yonhap News Agency citing the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on July 6, a worsening shortage of local government employees in Japan’s major metropolitan areas, known as ordinance-designated cities (seirei-shitei-toshi), has resulted in some technical positions receiving no applications at all.

Ordinance-designated cities are large urban centers with populations of over 500,000, officially designated by the Japanese government. Currently, there are 20 such cities, including Yokohama, Osaka, Niigata, and Kobe.

The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Pixabay

The newspaper reported that in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, there was not a single applicant for technical facility positions requiring a university degree for the 2025 recruitment cycle.

Niigata City also failed to attract any applicants for technical public servant positions in the waterworks field—specifically, electrical and mechanical roles—even after holding an additional recruitment drive.

Other large metropolitan cities in the Tokyo metropolitan area, including Kobe (with a population of 1.5 million), Chiba, and Saitama, are also struggling to fill technical positions, facing considerable difficulties.

Low Compensation and Outdated Promotion Systems... Young People Leaving Public Service

The sharp decline in the popularity of local government jobs in Japan, which were once highly competitive, has been attributed to a widening gap in working conditions compared to the private sector.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, last year the wage increase rate for Japanese private companies was 5.52%, the highest since 1992. In contrast, local government workers saw their wages rise by only 2.93%.

Hiroaki Inatsugu analyzed that Japan’s seniority-based pay and promotion system does not align with the values of the younger generation, leading talented individuals to opt for private companies instead.

There are concerns that if the labor shortage intensifies, administrative services such as the renovation and maintenance of aging infrastructure could be disrupted. As the workload per public servant increases, working conditions are expected to deteriorate further, potentially creating a vicious cycle in which the public sector becomes even less attractive.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun pointed out the need for an overhaul of the public servant system, emphasizing that roles and responsibilities should be more clearly defined to foster greater expertise.

Office workers in Tokyo, Japan. Yonhap News Agency

Not Just a Japanese Issue... Korea Also Faces Challenges Securing Technical Public Servants

Meanwhile, similar trends are being observed in Korea. In this year's open competitive examination for grade-9 local government positions, 141,546 applicants competed for 23,390 positions, resulting in an average competition ratio of 6.1 to 1—the lowest in the past five years. The competition ratio has declined for three consecutive years: from 10.7 to 1 in 2023, to 10.4 to 1 in 2024, and 8.8 to 1 last year.

The competition ratio for scientific and technical positions—including civil engineering, architecture, and electrical engineering—was 5 to 1, lower than that for administrative roles. Amid ongoing population decline in local areas and the aging of infrastructure, securing technical public servants has become a key challenge for local governments in Korea.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.