cutbacks2

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Personnel cuts in public services will worsen nation's welfare and employment
Akahata editorial

The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy chaired by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro has compiled guidelines for reducing the number of government employees and personnel costs.

The guidelines are in line with the Koizumi Cabinet's plan to cut the number of government employees by five percent in the next five years in order to reduce the total personnel costs to 50 percent of GDP in the next decade.

Number of public workers in Japan is modest

The Koizumi Cabinet tries to justify its plan by arguing that a "small government" needs to be established.

Repeated calls for a "small government" will be enough to make the public believe that Japan has a "big government" with too many government employees. That is not true.

According to an Internal Affairs and Communication Ministry survey, the number of public employees in one thousand is 96 in France, 73 in the United States (except for military and national defense personnel), and 73 in Britain. Japan has only 35, less than half the number these countries have.

When the advisory panel to the Finance Minister on the fiscal system discussed the number of public employees in October, experts on the panel reported as follows: Many documents released by the Internal Affairs and Communication Ministry and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the number of government employees in Japan is modest.

Concerning the personnel costs of national and local governments combined, Japan was the lowest among major countries in relation to GDP. The total cost of national government employees remains about the same as 20 years ago.

Although the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy is aware of these facts, Prime Minister Koizumi just said, "It is true that government personnel costs have already been reduced to a large extent."

It is wrong to argue that the number of Japan's government employees represents "big government." It is important to note that 40 percent of the total of government employees are Self-Defense Forces and Defense Agency personnel. The problem is that corrupt relations are prevalent between politicians, the business sector, and bureaucrats, and that senior bureaucrats enjoy privileges such as high paying jobs with government contractors and government-affiliated corporations after receiving large retirement bonuses. The need now is to eliminate these wasteful uses of tax money and rampant corruption.

To the contrary, the Koizumi Cabinet's attack on government employees is directed mostly at sectors that are essential to public services, including education, welfare services, and smaller businesses, and the attack includes cuts in the number of employees.

Okuda Hiroshi, president of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) and Toyota Motor Co., along with other members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy assert that the government must be as small as possible in a society in which the birthrate is falling. How can reducing the number of government employees associated with public services help in efforts to establish sound society that makes it easy to raise children?

Wage cuts for government employees will have negative effects on the wages of private sector workers. The National Personnel Authority's annual recommendations to freeze or reduce wages were always followed by cutbacks in wages for private sector employees in the Spring Labor Offensive. We see a vicious circle of cuts in private workers' wages as a result of corporate restructurizing and cuts in public servants' wages, aggravating wage standards for all workers in the spring labor offensives.

Since Prime Minister Koizumi took office, about 2.5 million regular workers have been replaced with non-regular workers, such as part timers and temporary workers with worsening working conditions. The number of non-regular workers accounts for more than 30 percent of total employees. Regular workers who manage to keep their jobs at companies have to endure more demanding workloads and excessively long working hours.

This means that a majority of the Japanese people are facing extraordinary difficulties arising from low wages and more difficult working conditions.

Launch counter offensive

Government employees' job cuts will just aggravate the general employment situation.

The government is attempting to persuade the public into accepting mass consumption tax and income tax increases, saying that even the state is obliged to shed the number of government employees.

The true aim of the Koizumi Cabinet and business circles is to increase antagonism between public sector workers and private sector workers. The need now is for workers to launch a counter offensive to stop the government plan, and establish mutual solidarity in order to strike back at the source of workers' hardships. -- Akahata, November 15, 2005