A group of young officials in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki government district have been working on reforming the nation's central administrative system, which they say is too vertically segmented and has failed to produce internationally competitive policies.

About 20 current and former civil servants mainly from government ministries and agencies are active in a nonprofit organization dubbed Project K, exchanging opinions with other organizations, municipalities and private-sector companies, and compiling proposals to streamline the bureaucracy.

They complain that central government officials are not given as much time as they would like for working out policies because so much of their day is taken up with meetings with officials of other ministries or preparing questions and responses for Cabinet ministers taking part in Diet deliberations.