Foreign residents to be eligible for regular jobs at east Japan town hall from FY2025

OTA, Gunma — Nationality will be removed from the criteria for taking tests to become municipal staffers in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, starting from fiscal 2025, the town’s mayor announced on Dec. 26.

The community will be the first in the prefecture to hire foreign-born residents for all lines of public service.

Foreigners represent around 20% of Oizumi’s roughly 41,000 residents. As of the end of November, the town’s foreign population stood at around 8,300, including many from Brazil, Peru and Vietnam.

From the twice-annual tests, the municipality hires a total of around 10 to 15 people in seven fields including general office work, construction, public works and child care. Foreign residents will not be hired for management roles and will not be involved in the exercise of public authority through levying or collecting taxes and similar roles.

The town’s government is also reportedly considering having foreign staffers handle procedures for the foreign residents who visit the town hall, guardians who send their children to Japanese language classes at a local elementary or junior high school, and other similar people.

Oizumi Mayor Toshiaki Murayama commented, “I wanted to fix the injustice that people who were born and raised here couldn’t work at the town hall. The number of test-takers who pass is low, but I want them to try their best.”

The tests are administered in Japanese. In the last three years, the pass rates were around 1 in 10 to 1 in 14.

(Japanese original by Jo Kamiuse, Ota Local Bureau)