Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 16

Research Paper Example e career civil servants are employed in a step-wise system that has the lowest (entry) level civil servant at grade 9 and highest level civil servants at grade 1. The contract civil servants are employed on specialized jobs that see their employment terminated once the terms of the contract have been met (Choi & Park 2013, pp. 12-13). In Japan, the national civil service is responsible for all civil servant employments. Once employed in a ministry, an employee will remain with the same ministry until their employment is terminated. Transfers between ministries is very uncommon. A civil servant is advanced selectively but in the confines of rank such that the senior personnel have priority in terms of promotion. In reality, the actual retirement age for civil servants is 55 years of age but an ‘amakudari’ style of re-employment system has been adopted by Japan’s civil service in which retired workers are re-absorbed back into the workforce as part of the lifetime employment system employed in the country. The implication is that amakudari is an essential provision of the lifetime employment system where workers are obligated to resign from place of employment before they reach of the formal retirement age. The system provides low salaries for civil servants, when matched to salaries of the same age cohort in the private sector. Amakudari is an issue of great significance and one that has become very contentious. Each ministry runs independent of the others and central government such that; each minister is expected to bear the responsibility and that even the prime minister cannot direct other ministers’ business; and some of the core government ministries were created before the current constitution was promulgated. The local governments employ 75 percent of all civil servants while the central government employs the remaining 25 percent (Hood & Guy 2003, pp. 38-42; Institute of Administrative Management 2001, pp. 21-26). The British civil service