This image is not directly related to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
This image is not directly related to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

Japan's designated major cities — known as "seirei shitei toshi," or ordinance-designated cities — are struggling to fill civil servant positions, with some areas recently recording zero applicants for technical roles.

According to the Nikkei on Monday, the city of Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture received no applications for its college-graduate facilities engineering positions last year.

Niigata City also failed to hire anyone for college-graduate electrical and mechanical engineering roles in its waterworks division, even after launching a second recruitment round.

Kobe, a city of about 1.5 million people, along with metropolitan-area cities such as Chiba and Saitama, have also been reported to face difficulties filling technical positions.

Ordinance-designated cities are government-designated major urban centers with populations of at least 500,000. There are currently 20 such cities, including Yokohama, Osaka, Niigata and Kobe.

The recruitment crisis has deepened even in these large cities largely because of a widening compensation gap. Once coveted for their stability and high competition ratios, civil service positions have lost their appeal as the wage gap with private-sector employers has grown.

According to Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, private-sector wages rose 5.52 percent last year — the largest increase since 1992. Local government salaries, by contrast, rose only 2.93 percent, roughly half the private-sector rate.

Analysts warn that the recruitment shortfall and the drain of talented workers to the private sector could eventually affect the quality of public administration services. There are also concerns that heavier workloads for remaining civil servants could worsen working conditions, further discouraging applicants and creating a vicious cycle.

South Korea faces similar pressures. Amid growing complaints about abusive public inquiries, a widening pay gap with the private sector and deteriorating working conditions, discussions over next year's civil servant compensation are already underway.

The competition ratio for the Grade 9 civil servant exam stood at 6.1-to-1 this year, marking the third consecutive year of decline.

A total of 141,546 people applied for 23,390 positions this year, pushing the average competition ratio slightly below last year's level. Over the past five years, the ratio moved from 9.1-to-1 in 2022 to 10.7-to-1 in 2023, 10.4-to-1 in 2024 and 8.8-to-1 in 2025.

The take-home pay of a Grade 9, Step 1 civil servant hovering near the minimum wage level has also drawn criticism. Many argue that the financial rewards fall short not only compared with large conglomerates but even mid-sized companies, and that talented candidates are increasingly bypassing public service for the private sector — a trend that mirrors Japan's experience.

Against this backdrop, civil servant unions are demanding a 7.1 percent pay raise this year, up 0.5 percentage points from last year's demand of 6.6 percent and 3.6 percentage points above the 3.5 percent increase ultimately approved for this year. Attention is also turning to whether the starting monthly salary for a Grade 9, Step 1 civil servant can reach the target of 3 million won ($1,950).


ygmoon@heraldcorp.com