Diversity Policy for Public Service in Japan

― Policies for Women and

Persons with Disabilities―

Bunzo HIRAI

(Chief Analyst for Human Resources Management)

Miwa ETO

(Office of the Counselor for Appointment System)

Personnel and Pension Bureau

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Government of Japan

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Contents

● Overview of Recruitment and Appointment of

National Public Service in Japan

● Reform of Public Service System in Japan

● Social Needs

● Recruitment and Appointment Policy for Women

in Power and Decision-making

● Employment for Persons with Disabilities

● Concluding Remarks

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Overview of Recruitment and Appointment of

of National Public Service in Japan

Career-based System (Life-time employment)

the Merit System Japanese “Fast Streamers”;expected to be senior executives and promoted much faster than those who passed other exams

Reform of Public Service System in JapanBasic Policies for Appointment of Government Officials (Cabinet Decision, 2009) - Promoting personnel management based on competency and performance

- Equal opportunity to participate in executive candidate training

Type of Examination

LEVEL ⅠHigher Civil

Service Exam

LEVEL Ⅱ

LEVEL Ⅲ

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Social Needs

Not much in favor of women and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Japan’s employment environment.- GEM rank : 54th / 93 countries source: UNDP, HDR 2007/2008

Seeking gender equality in decision-making process

Paradigm-shift in the policy for PWDs in general- Aiming for the independence and social participation of PWDs.

“ Transition from Welfare to Employment”

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Recruitment and Appointment Policy forWomen in Power and Decision-making

Legislative Background- The Second Basic Plan for Gender Equality (Cabinet decision based on the provision of the Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society, 2005)

“To expand women’s participation in every field so that women will have at least 30% of the leadership positions in all fields of society by 2020” (following Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies, 1985)

Existing Conditions (1): Recruitment -Target: to increase the employment rate for females in social-science background divisions of the LevelⅠExam to approximately 30% by around FY2010.

The target figure was achieved in 2009. =* 6.4% point yoy increase

30.6%5

Trends in the Number of Recruited Femalesin Public Service

*in social-science background divisions (public administration/law/economy)

Type of Examination

FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 FY2009

Number Employ-mentRate

Number Employ-mentRate

Number Employ-mentRate

Number Employ-mentRate

Number Employ-mentRate

LEVELⅠ 132 20.4% 134 21.1% 137 21.9% 134 21.7% 170 25.8%

LEVEL ⅠIn social-science

background divisions

64 21.5% 66 22.4% 74 25.1% 71 24.2% 93 30.6%

LEVELⅡ 818 25.9% 715 26.4% 506 27.8% 514 25.4% 576 26.5%

LEVEL ⅡIn social-science

background divisions

668 28.1% 592 27.5% 418 31.3% 418 28.4% 468 29.9%

LEVELⅢ 503 32.8% 459 35.0% 457 37.2% 472 35.6% 560 36.1%

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Existing Conditions (2): Appointment

- Given the necessity for further strategic efforts to expand women’s participation, increasing the numbers of female national public employees in positions at director-level and higher is the next stage.

- Ratio of females in such positions in 2008 = 2.0% *0.1% point yoy increase

cf.) Assistant director 5.7%Section chief 17.4%

-The number of females in positions at director-level and higher is to be increased by greater efforts government-wide to retain female public employees and to provide them with steady career-improving opportunities.

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Challenges

- Reinforcement of legal measures and implementation

strategies to balance professional work and private life,

particularly childcare and family care

- Allocating enough human resources for diversity policies for

women in public service

・ Minister of State for Gender Equality

・ Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office

・ Pension Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

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・ childcare leave ・ family care leave・ nursing leave system ・ system to limit out-of-hours work・ system to limit late-night work ・ shortened working hours, etc.

(based on the Act on Child Care and Family Care Leave, 1991, etc.)

Legislative Background

- Statutory QuotasPursuant to the Law for Employment Promotion, etc. of the Disabled, each private enterprise

including non-profit entities, the national and local governments needs to employ at least the

following ratio of PWDs (statutory quotas).

Employment for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs)

○ Private

enterprises

○ National and local governments

(institutions with 48 or more employees）

○ Prefectural boards of education

(institutions with 50 or more employees）

Special public corporations, etc.

independent administrative institution

and special public institutions with

48 or more employees

２．１％

２．０％

２．１％

General enterprises

（enterprises with 56 or more employees）

１．８％

Actual employment rate in 2008 = ２．１８％

Resource: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Power Point, “For Expanding Employment Opportunities forPersons with Disabilities”

Actual employment rate in 2008 = 1.55%

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Details of the preceding page

Persons with physical disabilities and persons with intellectual disabilities

are covered by obligatory employment （persons with mental disabilities are

not covered, but it is allowed to include an employee who has a “certificate of

person with mental disorders” when employers calculate the actual

employment rate of PWDs to assess compliance with the statutory quota).

* Employing 1 person with severe physical or intellectual disabilities

counts as employing 2 persons with physical or intellectual disabilities.

* In principle, part-time workers do not count as actual employment

rates. Nevertheless, a person with severe physical or intellectual

disabilities working part-time (weekly scheduled working hours of 20

hours or more but less than 30 hours) is counted as 0.5 person.

Resource: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Power Point, “For Expanding Employment Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities”

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Policy for persons with intellectual disabilities and persons

with mental disorders should be emphasized.

Bar Chart: Number of job applicants with disabilities (10,000 persons) Line Chart: Number of actually employed PWDs (10,000 persons)

Figure 1: Trends in the Number of Job Applicants and Actual Recruited Persons

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97,626

Existing Conditions: Challenge Employment

Legislative Background- The New Five-Year Plan (Decision by Headquarters for Promotion Measures

for Persons with Disabilities, composed of cabinet ministers, 2002)

Objective- Gaining working experience and skills aiming at long-term employment

in companies

Eligible Applicants - Persons with intellectual disabilities and mental disorders

● Job experience as casual employees in public service for 1～3 years● The program has been implemented throughout all ministries and

agencies since FY 2008.

The number of employees exceeds 100 as of June 1, 2009.

Challenge Employment program

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Challenges

- Expanding internship in public workplaces for those with mental disorders (since FY 2008)

* Internship in public workplaces for those with intellectual

disabilities (3 times, FY2005-FY2007)

- The necessity of creating a working environment for PWDs

* Support for improving workplace communications, work

performance, etc.

* Building a cooperative atmosphere between officials in public

service and PWDs as casual employees

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Concluding Remarks

How can the Japanese government advance the diversity

policy from an “equal at entry” approach to one that

considers “diversity as an asset”?

- Diversity policy of human resources as a strategic tool

in public management

- Need to not only recruit but also retain high-performing

female employees

- Need to improve working environment for PWDs

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