Education and Training Japanese Government Officials: Current Trends and Policy Study Aspects

We explain the recruiting and promoting system for high-level Japanese government officials showing the trend of numbers of applicants for the recruitment examination, those who passed the examination, and also those who were employed by some ministries in the last 17 years. We describe the major characteristics of the promotion system for Japanese government officials. Educating and training Japanese government officials in the area of policy studies have been conducted in both university schools, governmental training centers, governmental schools and colleges. An education and training system for government officials needs to be developed so that each government official is equipped with a certain specialty and expertise. A formal system for evaluating individuals and programs has not been common in Japan, especially for evaluating individual work and contribution. We need to “invent” an evaluation system that will make the government officials’ decision-making system work more efficiently. Public and private universities, in particular, have been very active in creating many policy-related schools and departments in the last 20 years. Policy studies, which have been conducted in various schools in the university and government research institutes, are described in detail with their objectives, curriculums, and requirements.