- TOP
- ＞Personnel and Pension Bureau(PPB)
Public employee program reforms
The PPB collaborates and cooperates with the Cabinet Secretariat and Headquarters for the Promotion of Administrative Reform in promoting various policies for public employee program reforms toward realizing a model of public employees who support an administration system appropriate for the 21st century.
Specifically, the PPB works to address such challenges as: (1) conducting personnel assessment designed to build a personnel assessment system on the basis of personnel management oriented toward ability and results, (2) promoting personnel exchange between the public and private sectors to secure and train diverse personnel, and (3) optimizing retirement management.
<(1) Establishment of a personnel assessment system> In order to establish a personnel assessment system with greater objectivity and fairness, several attempts have been made regarding personnel assessment. In these attempts, assessment is conducted based on "capability assessment" by recognizing the capability for executing duties, and "performance assessment" by recognizing performance as achieved by executing duties. Schemes such as self-assessment by assessees, with guidance and advice provided by assessors through interviews with those assessees, have also been introduced. Results achieved by such attempts will be utilized for the future design of our systems.
<(2) Promotion of personnel exchange between the public and private sectors> Based on the "Law concerning Personnel Exchange Between the National Government and Private Corporations (Public-Private Personnel Exchange Law)," personnel exchange with the private sector has been promoted since fiscal 2000. For developing an environment for further expansion of such exchange, meetings of the "Conference for Promoting Public-Private Personnel Exchange" involving government officials, persons from the business world and other knowledgeable personnel have been organized since 2007 to examine such future policies as those regarding matching systems for exchange.
<(3) Optimization of retirement management>
Based on the revised National Public Service Act, retirement management is optimized by prohibiting outplacement by ministries and agencies, and thus centralized at the Center for Personnel interchanges between Government and Private entities; restricting job hunting by current public servants to private entities with stakes, restricting influence-peddling by retired public servants to current public servants, and uniform management of reemployment information by the Cabinet through announcements and notifications of reemployment by managerial public servants, with such information being reported to the Cabinet.
To handle complex and advanced administration, the PPB has been promoting a dual career ladder system by creating job titles for specialized staff since fiscal 2008 in consideration of extended periods of service, as well as the utilization of advanced expertise and experience accumulated by public servants in performing official duties.
Notes:
The number of government officials is based on the full number of employees based on the budget as of the end of fiscal 2008
- 1) The number of designated independent administrative agencies is based on the number of full-time officers as of October 1, 2008
- 2) The number of designated independent administrative agencies is based on the number of full-time employees as of January 1, 2009
Promoting the comprehensive coordination of personnel management, along with related tasks
As a body assisting the Prime Minister, which is a Central Personnel Administrative Organ, the PPB organizes the personnel managers' conference, comprising Personnel Section Managers from different ministries and agencies, and establishes principles of personnel management, which are a unified set of Guidelines for the Personnel Management of the National Government, thereby comprehensively coordinating personnel management. Moreover, to secure and train varied personnel, the PPB promotes personnel exchange between the national government and the private sector, the national government and local public bodies, and among ministries and agencies and carries out joint beginner training for government officials and various other educational programs.
Salaries and other conditions of government officials
The working conditions of government officials are supposed to be set forth in laws. The most important and basic of all working conditions is the salary.
Regarding the salaries of government officials in general (white-collar) jobs, as a measure for substituting the restriction of the fundamental labor rights, the National Personnel Authority investigates and compares the monthly salaries for April of government officials and private-sector employees and, usually in August each year, submits a report and a set of recommendations to the Diet and the Cabinet.
In response to such recommendations from the National Personnel Authority, the national government deliberates the policy for handling those recommendations at a Cabinet meeting on salaries, comes up with findings at that meeting, and submits a revision bill for the Salary Law to the Diet. A series of paperwork for all these is performed by the PPB.
Moreover, the PPB performs paperwork regarding the salary programs of the Prime Minister, ministers of state, and personnel in other special service and investigates, plans, and drafts retirement allowances for government officials.
Paperwork regarding other government officials
The PPB performs paperwork regarding measures related to aged government officials, paperwork for ensuring service discipline, and paperwork for welfare, while responding as the national government's contact to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other international establishments and personnel associations.
Moreover, according to the e-Government Establishment Program, the PPB optimizes personnel, salary, and other affairs common to all ministries and agencies with the collaboration and cooperation of interested ministries and agencies.
In addition, the PPB joins forces with the Cabinet Secretariat and facilitates net reduction in the full numbers of employees in the administrative organs of the national government as part of the reforms of the total amount of personnel costs of government employees by transfer of personnel from departments of seat-cut to others.
Overview of the pension programs to public servants
The pension programs to public servants are designed for the employer of any public employee to issue a pension and/or other allowance to any public employee or their surviving family on the basis of the national government's special relationship with that public employee when that employee retires, after having served faithfully for a specified number of years, or when they have retired due to an injury or illness stemming from their service, or when they have died due to their service. Founded in 1875, these are the oldest pension programs in Japan.
Entitled to such pensions are former military personnel, civil officials, teachers, police and prison personnel, and other public employees. Pensions for non-military civil officials shifted from pension programs to mutual aid programs with the arrival of the National Public Service Mutual Aid Association Law of 1959.
Overview of pension affairs
Pension affairs include paperwork for: (1) investigating, planning, and drafting matters regarding the pension programs; (2) producing rulings on pension entitlements; (3) revising the yearly amounts of pensions; (4) determining and ruling appeals about pensions; (5) calculating and notifying amounts of pension entitlements; (6) withholding taxes; and (7) managing entitlement losses due to the death of pensioners and issuing other paperwork.
Redeployment of national government employees
The MIC joins forces with the Cabinet Secret ariat and facilitates net reduction in the full numbers of employees in the administrative organs of the national government as part of the reforms of the total amount of personnel costs of government employees As a part of efforts for reforms to reduce total personnel expenses, the central government has reassigned about 2,900 government officials in the four years since fiscal 2007 for a smooth net reduction of the total number of personnel at administrative agencies of the government. To promote these efforts, the Headquarters for Redeployment of National Civil Servant has been established in the Cabinet. The MIC is actively assisting these efforts by utilizing local organizations (Regional Administrative Evaluation Bureaus) from its supervisory position as the head of personnel administration of government officials.
In these efforts, government officials at the departments undergoing streamlining (such as departments handling statistics of agriculture,forestry and fisheries,staple food control and Hokkaido regional development) are to be reassigned to other ministries and agencies under increasing administrative demand, and such ministries and agencies accept these officials by freezing the hiring a part of new employees.
Based on proactive efforts taken by the entire government in setting an annual reassignment target of about 700 persons, they achieved numbers exceeding the targets for fiscal 2007,2008 and 2009.