Continuity and Change of Japan's Bureaucratic System : Life Course and Role Behavior of Higher Civil Servants in Showa-Heisei Period.

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 10610173
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 社会学(含社会福祉関係)
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAMICHI Minoru Nara Women's University, Graduate School of Human Culture, Professor, 大学院・人間文化研究科, 教授 (40067690)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 2000
• Keywords: higher Civil Servants / Japan's bureaucratic system / life course / social career / life history / cohort analysis / policy-making process / 政策行動

Research Abstract

This research examines and evaluates the historical role of Japan's postwar bureaucratic system by clarifying role creation and transformation in higher civil servants. To this end, three types of surveys were carried out as follows. 1) Bureaucratic Career Survey (conducted 1998-2000) that used secondary materials to track the bureaucratic career of 1,575 top-ranked section chiefs and above who entered ministries and government offices in the period from 1935 to 1979. 2) Mailed Questionnaire (conducted July 1999) that surveyed 1,336 retired and active civil servants on a variety of issues including role recognition and identity, the influence of various players in the policy-making process, and postwar policy-making evaluation. 3) Oral Life History Survey (conducted February and July 2000) that targeted 123 individuals from among the respondents to the above questionnaire. Some of the results of these surveys were presented jointly at the Kansai Sociological Society Conference in May 2 000 and at the Japan Sociological Society Conference in November 2000. The following summarizes key findings of these surveys. 1) Promotion in rank has become totally slower and much slower in upper ranks ; retirement<age has become fixed (around 55 years old); ministries and government offices have become similar in these" respects; and career patterns exhibit both continuity and change. 2) Higher civil servants acknowledge that government bureaucrats have the most influence in policy forming, drafting, and finalizing followed by government leaders and ruling party leaders. This opinion differs little among cohorts. 3) While higher civil servants express pride in the fact that it maintains influence in the policy making process and plays a supporting role in Japanese politics and government, it is also aware of its falling influence as the political leadership of politicians grows. The results of a case study reveal that self confidence is. prevalent and morale is high in higher civil servants and that there is a desire for proper assessment of one's role. 4) A change can be observed in higher civil servants from "patriot type," who associate the work of postwar recovery and economic reconstruction with high growth, to "adjustment type," who must deal with the burden of "policy transformation" following the transition to low growth by building consensus among various players.