By Shinji Hirai (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-03-07 07:20

What are reforms in Japan for?

It is true that government-led structural reform was effective in reviving the economy. Now, some businesses centering on major corporations are reportedly raising wages. But at the same time, with deregulation of the factory location law and other legislation, more manufacturers are shifting production bases to major urban areas.

As a result, there are fewer jobs in rural communities, and young people are moving to urban areas, giving rise to "secondary depopulation".

On average, the numbers of job openings and applicants more or less balance out. But actually, there is a wide gap in jobs-to-applicants ratios between regions, and the scarcity of jobs in rural areas is an increasingly serious problem.

As far as labor administration is concerned, the government has drastically cut the number of job placement officials at public employment security offices on grounds that the jobs-to-applicants ratio has improved. The number of employment security offices itself has also been reduced by about 10 percent.

Of course, I understand the need for administrative reform. But what bureaucrats of the national government actually did was to apply the same standard to close down employment security offices across the nation both in areas where there are plenty of jobs and those with a serious shortage.

In addition to government-run public employment security offices, private job placement services are also available in most major urban areas where jobs abound. Properly speaking, the cut in job placement officials should be implemented intensively in those areas.

But actually, the number of officials was reduced from 11 to two in Tottori Prefecture, where the jobs-to-applicants ratio is about 0.7. To make up for the shortage of government employees of the Employment Security Bureau, the prefecture hired three workers to make the rounds of employers to gather job-opening information.

Furthermore, in late November, the government decided to close down two of the five public employment security offices in the prefecture, causing public resentment. Areas where jobs-to-applicants ratios were among the lowest within the prefecture were targeted.

In one area, the ratio dropped to as low as 0.36 in December, meaning there were only 3.6 jobs for every 10 job seekers. It was beyond unreasonable that the closure came at a time when communities as a whole were trying to activate the local economy and secure more jobs.

At the end of the year, I met with Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Yoichi Masuzoe to explain about these problems that communities in the prefecture were facing and told him that Tottori was the only prefecture that was hiring workers on its own to gather information about job openings.

Although my request for the ministry to take back its decision to close public employment security offices was turned down, I was nonetheless able to persuade the government to show special consideration in providing support to boost the number of job placement officials and other measures to make up for the closing down of the offices.

From the vantage point of residents, job placement services should be continued and improved. To meet such demand, starting in fiscal 2008, Tottori Prefecture decided to open its own employment security offices in areas where the government offices are due to close.

The national government, Tottori Prefecture and municipalities also agreed to hold consultations on the employment situation on a regular basis.

Why not take advantage of the unfortunate situation to advance cooperation, enhance job placement functions and make the system more convenient for residents? The new system will also make the cooperation of the prefecture's industrial and labor policies more efficient.

National and local government sectionalism is meaningless. What is important is to secure employment and protect citizens' livelihoods. Public employment security offices belong to the people. They should meet diversified needs of local communities.

Essentially, it would be reasonable for prefectures to take the initiative to oversee employment administration along with the advancement of industrial development and for the national government to build a nationwide database.

Instead of engaging in an impractical administrative argument that leaves citizens in the lurch, what is needed is practical wisdom to provide appropriate public service within limited resources.

The author is governor of Tottori Prefecture The Asahi Shimbun

(China Daily 03/07/2008 page10)