National Public Servants Investigation on Long Working Hours Interview with the National Personnel Authority House of Representatives

In a survey on long working hours by national public servants, many respondents said that the late notification of questions from Diet members was a factor in overtime, and the House Management Committee of the House of Representatives interviewed the National Personnel Agency, which conducted the survey.

Last month, the National Personnel Authority conducted its first survey of all government agencies on the response of national public servants to the Diet, including the preparation of Diet responses, and announced that "late notification of questions" was the most common factor in overtime work.

In response to this, the House of Representatives Steering Committee held a board meeting on the 26th and interviewed Governor Kawamoto of the National Personnel Agency.

Among them, directors of the ruling and opposition parties expressed the opinion that it was not appropriate to regard only the work of dealing with the Diet as a problem, and that "the relationship between overtime work and other duties such as drafting bills should also be investigated" and "the number of national public servants may have been reduced too much in the first place."

On the other hand, considering that some kind of response was necessary for the notification of questions, the Board of Directors decided to proceed with consideration in the future with the direction of making a new agreement as the House of Representatives.

National Personnel Authority President Kawamoto: "Correction of long working hours is an urgent task"

Governor Kawamoto of the National Personnel Authority told NHK, "There is an urgent need to reform work styles, especially the correction of long working hours, in order to attract human resources for civil servants.

Liberal Democrat Masahito Moriyama: "I would like the government to respond to this"

Masahito Moriyama of the Liberal Democratic Party, who serves as the ruling party's lead director of the House of Representatives Steering Committee, told reporters, "The House of Representatives would like to consider responding to the notice of questions, but on the other hand, the results of the investigation by the National Personnel Authority strongly give the impression that the legislators are entirely responsible for the overtime work of national public servants, but I would like the government to respond where it should be done."

Mr. Hiroshi Kasa "The Diet is the Diet, the government is the government, and everyone should improve"

Hiroshi Kasa of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, who serves as the lead member of the opposition side of the House of Representatives Steering Committee, told reporters, "Rather than taking the one-sided view that the problem of overtime work for national public servants is serious because the Diet is slow to notify questions, the Diet as the Diet and the government as the government need to improve together.