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

Widening Wage Gap with the Private Sector Deepens Youth Aversion
Labor Shortages Hit Sagamihara, Niigata, and Now Kobe

Yonhap News Agency reported on July 6, citing Nihon Keizai Shimbun, that the recruitment crisis for local government officials is worsening in Japan's major metropolitan areas designated as ordinance-designated cities (seirei-shitei toshi), with some technical positions seeing zero applicants.

Ordinance-designated cities are large metropolitan areas designated by the Japanese government among cities with a population of over 500,000. There are currently 20 such cities, including Yokohama, Osaka, Niigata, and Kobe.

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

According to the newspaper, Sagamihara City in Kanagawa Prefecture had no applicants for its 2025 university graduate facility engineering recruitment.

Niigata City also failed to hire for university graduate-level electrical and mechanical engineering positions in waterworks, even after conducting an additional recruitment round due to lack of applicants.

Metropolitan areas such as Kobe, which has a population of 1.5 million, as well as Chiba and Saitama, are also struggling to fill technical positions, facing difficulties in meeting their quotas.

Low Compensation and Outdated Promotion Systems...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

The decline in popularity of local government jobs in Japan, which once saw high competition rates, is attributed to the widening gap in compensation between the public and private sectors.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, last year the average wage increase rate at Japanese private companies was 5.52%, the highest since 1992, while the salary increase rate for local government officials remained at just 2.93%.

Hiroaki Inatsugu analyzed that Japan’s seniority-based pay and promotion system no longer aligns with the values of the younger generation, leading top talent to move to private companies.

There are concerns that if the labor shortage worsens, administrative services such as maintenance and repair of aging infrastructure could be disrupted. As the workload per government employee increases, working conditions deteriorate, which in turn further discourages people from pursuing government jobs, creating a vicious cycle.

Nihon Keizai Shimbun pointed out the need to overhaul the civil service system overall, clarifying roles and responsibilities and allowing for greater professional specialization.

Office worker in Tokyo, Japan. Yonhap News Agency

Not Just a Japanese Issue... Securing Technical Positions is Also a Challenge for Korea

Meanwhile, a similar trend is appearing in Korea. This year, 141,546 people applied for 23,390 openings in the Level 9 open competitive local government recruitment exam, resulting in an average competition rate of 6.1 to 1, the lowest in the past five years. The competition rate has dropped 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, continuing into this year.

The competition rate for science and technology positions, including civil engineering, architecture, and electrical engineering, was 5 to 1, lower than for administrative positions. As local populations decline and infrastructure continues to age, securing technical government officials is emerging as a key challenge for local governments in Korea.

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