Why do elementary school students in Japan want to be public servants?
1, Japanese style lifetime employment is collapsing.
In Japan, it is not unusual to continue working in the same company for over 40 years. Suppose you get a job from company A. You do not change jobs and continue to work for the same company A until you get 60 and retire. This system is called lifetime employment. Once you get a job, it is extremely rare to lose your job. Japanese law says that an employer can cut employee only when the firm is in financial crisis or the employee punch or kick supervisor.
( I was fired, but I did not punch or kick someone else. I behaved myself. I respected others, or at least I pretended to respect others. My ex- workplace seems to have serious financial problems. )
In Japanese style lifetime employment system, if you work as a full-time employee, tha amount of your income tends to increase every year. When you are about 22-25 years old, the company pays you around $25000-30000 every year. When you get older, say 50-60 years old, you get an annual income of about $70000.
Japanese companies used to work under this system. However, Japan is under depression these days. There are less and less full-time jobs. Even if you get such full-time posts, you tend to loose these jobs. Under Japanese low, the employer can push younger employees around for a small amount of fee. Once the employees get older, the employer has to pay them a larger amount of money. So, they may be cut off for financial reasons. Japanese law says you can cut off employees for financial reasons. These phenomena are called 45-restructure in Japan. Probably, the use of restructure is wrong, but Japanese people do use this phrase in daily conversations. They mistakenly believe loosing your job is restructure. Usually, a company undergoes corporate restructure.
Under Japanese lifetime employment system, once you loose your job, it is almost impossible to get a decent job. Most companies want younger workers. They hire young people and train them over a long period of time. When you reach 45 or 50, your trainability gets lower then when you were 25-30. Most decent companies do not want such older people. The companies can choose workers. Japan is under depression now. A lot of people apply for a job vacancy once a company advertises jobs.
Some people claim that those who developed their skills have opportunity to get jobs even when they are in their 50s. They are right. However, under lifetime employment system, it is difficult to develop your skills. People take it for granted that they can continue to work at the same company. They tend to lose their sense of crisis. When they realize their company is going under, in many cases, it is too late.
2, Elementary school children have dreams to be public servants.
When Japanese companies are faced with financial crisis, they can cut off their employees. Public servants are employed by Japanese government. Prefects and cities employ them, but prefects are parts of Japan. Japan itself will not collapse. So, small children in Japan want to be public servants.
A research firm revealed the ranking of jobs which elementary school children would like to have in the future. According to the ranking, No1 job is pro soccer players, which is understandable. You watch pro soccer players on TV. They are stars. I understand their feelings. To be a professional is difficult, but they want to be. However, I was left speechless when I heard what were No2 and No3 occupations for small kids. No2 was public servants. No3 was You Tuber.
When I was in elementary school, I did not know about public servants. I did not know such workers existed. However, many children around 10 years old today would like to be public servants in the future. This indicates Japanese economy is faced with difficulties.
No3 popular occupation is You Tubers. Partly, this is understandable. Indeed they are stars. Compared with true stars such as Lady Gaga, they seem to be not talented. However at least they are stars for small children.
