The government has drawn up the draft of a bill to reform the national public servant system. While based on a proposal by a private advisory panel for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, it somewhat deviates from the proposal. Instead of creating a Cabinet agency to consolidate government personnel affairs — one of the key points of the proposal — the draft calls for "integrated personnel management" and establishment of an "organization" for the job. The draft may undergo further changes due to opposition from politicians of the ruling parties. As Article 15 of the Constitution points out, all the public servants are "servants of the whole community" and not of individual government ministries. Mr. Fukuda should do his best to make the future system realize the constitutional ideal.

The panel had considered banning in principle contact between politicians and bureaucrats, except for bureaucrats in proposed new specialist posts who assist Cabinet members in Diet affairs. But the draft calls for laying down rules concerning contact between politicians and bureaucrats who are not such specialists. Frequent contact between bureaucrats and Diet members of the Liberal Democratic Party has given rise to collusive relations. But a strict contact ban will make it impossible for politicians to obtain information from government ministries useful to the public and to convey people's as well as their views to them. Transparent and workable rules are necessary.

Under the present system, fast-track bureaucrats who passed the highest public service examination monopolize all the important posts. The draft proposes introducing a new examination system and laying down clear rules to appoint bureaucrats who are not on the fast track for important positions. Care must be taken so that the new examination system does not become a replay of the current examination system.