An increasing number of Japan’s most talented graduates are turning away from careers in Kasumigaseki and instead joining foreign companies. This essay argues that harsh working conditions, political attacks from opposition parties, and media hostility toward bureaucrats have contributed to this trend. It explores the structural consequences of losing elite talent from the government bureaucracy and the implications for Japan’s governance.

2019-02-14
The reason they have begun to avoid careers in Kasumigaseki is first and foremost that the working environment is close to the worst imaginable, and yet they are constantly subjected to attacks from opposition politicians who seize upon trivial mistakes.

Year after year, the most outstanding individuals representing Japan increasingly avoid Kasumigaseki and instead take jobs at foreign firms.
This is a serious problem for the nation.

The reason they have begun to avoid Kasumigaseki is that the working conditions are nearly intolerable, and despite this they are constantly targeted by opposition politicians who launch full-scale attacks over the smallest issues.

Moreover, many of them do not wish to lecture politicians who are far less capable and knowledgeable than themselves.
It is an undeniable fact that the more talented and capable individuals are precisely the ones leaving Kasumigaseki.

In other words, highly capable individuals have been resigning one after another because they have no desire to provide explanations and answers to politicians who are incompetent and ignorant, yet receive salaries of at least 45 million yen and behave arrogantly.

Thus the root cause of the problem lies with politicians who can scarcely be described as anything other than betrayers of the nation, together with mass media organizations such as Asahi Shimbun and NHK that have spent years attacking bureaucrats.
These media outlets themselves merely repeat what they receive from the Ministry of Finance.

In truth, the greatest workplace for Japan’s most brilliant elites—those blessed with the finest intellects and educated at the nation’s highest institutions—should be Kasumigaseki.

To participate in governing Japan, arguably the greatest nation in the world, and to take part in steering its course is in fact the highest possible calling.

Yet the mass media—Asahi, Mainichi, Tokyo Shimbun, NHK—and political parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Communist Party continue to produce reporting that can scarcely be described as anything other than treacherous.
Influenced by agents from China and the Korean Peninsula, these organizations perpetuate narratives hostile to Japan.

When such parties actually come to power, they can do nothing except rely entirely on bureaucrats.

This is only natural.
Those who spend their time merely attacking the government together with irresponsible media have no ability to govern a nation that has maintained one of the world’s most enduring systems of governance for 2,600 years.

The Democratic Party administration clearly demonstrated this reality.
It was, quite literally, a nightmarish government.

Prime Minister Abe’s assessment of it—as the worst period of governance in the postwar era—is entirely correct.