Local Government Employee Numbers
｡魵s of April 1, 1997, Japan's local government employees numbered 3,267,118,a drop of 7,363 from the previous year, and the third successive year that the number had fallen.
The drop of 7,363 was the largest fall since 1986. In the general administrative divisions, the number fell for the second year running.
｡鮻ducation, police and fire-fighting, where most of the employees are deployed by state ordinance, account for about half of local government employees, and the majority of the remainder are engaged in such administrative services as welfare and hospitals.
｡鶴n comparison with fiscal 1981(The second Special Fact-finding Committee commenced in March 1981),employee numbers have increased in line with the demand for improvements in social welfare and medical care, increased public investment, and improved public safety and disaster prevention, whereas numbers have been cut in other departments; and it is such efforts by local governments to keep down staff increases through scrap-and-build measures that have enabled them to limit the overall increase to 1.9 percent. Staff numbers in non-welfare general administrative service divisions have remained fairly constant.
Table 4 Local government employee numbers by service division (as of April 1,1997)
