Deputy Prime Minister Katsuya Okada has directed government ministries to reduce the number of recruits for fiscal 2013 by an average of about 70 percent from fiscal 2009's level. This is a typical example of the pseudo-reform that the Democratic Party of Japan government often uses to dupe the public. The government is apparently trying to use the recruitment cut as a sort of quid pro quo for people to accept the planned consumption tax hike.

Mr. Okada's directive could lead to the bashing of public servants and lower the quality of administrative services. Instead of adopting an "easy" policy like slashing the number of recruits, the government should tackle the more difficult job of breaking the bureaucracy's vested interests and eliminating waste and unnecessary work in the central bureaucracy. For example, the work of independent administrative agencies should be placed under strict scrutiny.

The 3/11 disasters highlighted the importance of public servants' work in times of emergency, however, Mr. Okada seems to have learned nothing from this experience. The number of public servants in Japan relative to its population is low. According to 2004-2005 data cited by a report, for every 1,000 people, Japan had 4.0 central government workers, compared with 4.4 in Germany, 7.5 in the United States, 32.9 in Britain and 37.1 in France.