Record High Number of Women Hired to Japanese Civil Service

A survey on the hiring of female national civil servants by Japan’s Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs found that 3,507 of 9,063 hires in fiscal 2023 were women. This was a rise of 1.5 points from the previous year to a rate of 38.7%, the highest ever on record. The percentage of women hired in career-track positions leading to executive appointments also hit a new high of 35.9%. The ratio for those holding general positions increased to 40.1% and those engaged in specialist work rose to 36.0%.

Up until fiscal 2014, the percentage of women hired to career-track positions remained in the range of 20–25%. However, there was a sharp increase following Abe Shinzō’s administration’s push to promote the active participation of women in national public service, including the announcement of a policy to increase hiring of women to at least 30%, both overall and for career-track positions, from fiscal 2015. The government set a further target to increase that ratio to at least 35% from 2020.

Many of the organizations where the percentage of women exceeded 50% were external agencies with hiring on a small scale. Of the ministries that hired more than 100 people, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had the highest percentage of women hires with 53.5%.

Organizations with Women’s Recruitment Rates Over 50% (Fiscal 2023)

Created by Nippon.com based on data from the Cabinet Bureau of Personnel Affairs.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)