Amakudari? What’s that?

02 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment

by thebaboose in Japan - Politics Tags: Amakudari, japanese political system

This is a translation of an article found here

Amakudari? What’s that?

This week Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he would end “Amakudari.”

What does Amakudari mean?

The word Amakudari originally referred to a God coming down from heaven. Presently, it refers to Bureaucrats (People who work in a Government Office) who after finishing work in a government position find employment in a company or organization that has deep ties with the Government Office they worked in. In its present use, heaven is the government office and the God is the Bureaucrat. It is quite grandiose isn’t it?

However, why must they stop doing Amakudari?

One reason for it is because a majority of the former Bureaucrats who did Amakudari became the top of the organizations they joined and receive a very high salary. The Bureaucrats are people who went through a very hard examination, but even so, it is dishonest for them to enter work in such a blessed job just for working in a government position. Another problem is that a majority of these organizations receive a lot of work from government agency. Normally when the government agency entrusts a project to a company or organization, various companies compete and the company that offers the lowest price receives the contract.

However, there are many cases where government agencies entrust a project to an organization (that do Amakudari) without any bidding. There are also suspicions on whether overly large sums of money are being paid to the organizations because there is no competition – money that originally comes from the taxpayers. This is a problem because taxpayers’ money is being used as the source for the high salaries.

The result of an investigation by the Japanese Board of Audit reports that the companies and organizations that Amakudari Bureaucrats belong to receive 25x more money from government agencies than groups that Amakudari do not belong to. Moreover, the former Bureaucrats who became the top of an Amakudari related organization retired after several years of service in the organization – only to pass the position to the next person from the same government office – and started employment for another organization. Even here, they receive a salary and can receive a severance pay after working for several years.

It is also said that the Bureaucrats, in order to have an organization to go to after leaving an Amakudari related organization, come up with a new project on purpose and create an organization to run it. This practice of wondering from one organization to another – after finishing up their time at an Amakudari related organization – like a migratory bird is called “watari.” There are even some people who make several million dollars in the end from repeatedly wandering from one organization to another, receiving severance pay several times. And the system has been criticized for this.

How did Amakudari start?

A Bureaucrat enters government office and works for a while and then receives a managerial position (Section Chief assistant, etc). However, there are not enough managerial positions for everyone and with a rise in position is a rapid decrease in the amount of positions available – According to Japanese law, a person can work until they are 60 years old, but Bureaucrats who can’t receive a managerial position are asked to quit by the Government, even if they are young – and concerning high managerial positions, the amount of people who can work until the set age of 60 is very small. So the Bureaucrats who must quit need a place to work. For this reason the Amakudari system was created.

This time, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he will put an end to Amakudari. Next, he made a wide call out to all organizations that receive Amakudari, and told them to gather the people who are employed in those positions. However, it will take more than this to solve the Amakudari problem – it is an irresponsible plan unless there is a place for the Bureaucrats to work.

To solve this problem, the Democratic Party of Japan (the Prime Minister’s political party) will make it so the Bureaucrats can work until the age of 65 (the age people can receive a pension). Also, because it is impossible for everyone to be promoted, it is necessary for the Government to create a law that enables a structure where even if a person gets older they can receive a lower managerial position. Even the Democratic party of Japan recognizes that the Bureaucrats are lined up with people of high ability. And even if Amakudari is completely ended, I would like a structure designed to give the Bureaucrats a way to work for the public.

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