The Public Sector Reform and the Transformation of Public Sector Work

Abstract

This paper examines how Japan’s recent public sector reform has changed the employment structure of the public sector, the nature of how public employees work, and the character of Japanese public sector work, especially considering the recent trend of personnel management reform triggered by the civil service reform.First, this paper aims to define the characteristics of public sector work. Then it surveys the types and the number of Japanese public sector employees, and examines the recent trend of employment reduction in the Japanese public sector, while referring to the background policies of the public sector reform. Also, this paper explores how the recent reforms and the reduction in the number of public employees have changed the employment structure of the Japanese public sector.Next, this paper characterizes the traditional personnel management system in the Japanese public sector. And then, it surveys the background of the civil service reform that has been developing since around 2000, and analyzes how the reform is transforming the personnel management system in the Japanese public sector.Lastly, this paper argues how the transformation of the employment structure and the personnel management system have changed the characteristics of public sector work, and what kind of problems this transformation involves from the viewpoint of the publicness of public sector work.