MITI and the Japanese miracle

Page 58

TABLE

3

Numbers and Universities of Passers of the Higher-Level Public Officials Examinations, 1975 and 1976

Number passing examination

University

1975

1976

Tokyo University

459

461

Kyoto University

172

193

Tohoku * University

67

51

Nagoya University

34

42

Kyushu* University

29

41

Tokyo Industrial University

44

38

Waseda University

28

32

Osaka University

44

32

Hokkaido* University

45

31

Tokyo University of Education

24

22

Nagoya Industrial University

7

19

Tokyo Agricultural University

18

15

Yokohama University

19

14

Chiba University

14

12

Kobe University

14

12

Hitotsubashi University

22

10

Keio* University

6

10

SOURCE

:

Shukan*

asahi

, July 15, 1977, pp. 2123.

NOTE

: No other university had as many as ten passers in either year.

noncommissioned officers in the military. In contemporary Japan all government officials must pass entrance examinations, but the old system is perpetuated by a differentiation between the difficulty and comprehensiveness of the examination taken. Today prospective bureaucrats must sit for either the class A (

ko

*) or the class B (

otsu

) examinations; those who pass the first and are accepted by a ministry may advance to the highest executive levels of the career service, including the position of vice-minister, but those who pass the second cannot be promoted beyond the section chief level, and usually not that high.

University students hoping to enter government service take the class A examinations during their last year in the university. Those who pass and are selected by a ministry then become part of an entering class within the ministry. This identification with an entering cohort becomes the bureaucrat's most important attribute during his entire bureaucratic life, and it follows him long after he leaves government service. Entering classes establish vertical relationships among all high-level, or ''career" (

kyaria

), officialsor what are called relations between

sempai

(seniors, those of earlier classes) and

kohai

* (ju-