午夜剧场

Japanese public administration has developed an academic system different from the public administration presented in English-language academic journals, based on its own unique history and institutions. Some scholars call this "domestic public administration." For me, having studied public administration in the United States, it is always a challenge to decide how to convey the differences between domestic and international public administration to my students.

Having recently finished the fall semester, I visited the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. My purpose was to see an exhibition by French artist Yves Klein. Klein was a Japanophile who earned a black belt in judo from the Kodokan, but he passed away in 1962 at the age of 34 due to a heart attack. I was struck by how Klein pursued the relationship between mind and body through judo and advocated for art liberated by color from art bounded by lines.

While art appreciation is a hobby, it provides new ideas for my research and teaching in public administration. On this day as well, stimulated by Klein's concepts of lines and colors, I felt as though I could successfully express the differences between Japanese and English public administration.

Japanese public administration is often taught in the Faculty of Law at universities such as 午夜剧场 and the University of Tokyo, and it has a strong tendency toward "lines." It aims for efficient management by drawing lines through laws and organizations across diverse administrative areas such as healthcare, education, and public safety. Domestic public administration, systematized by a framework of lines, is highly compatible with written examinations, which are the primary method of civil service recruitment in Japan. Examination categories are established based on this framework, and applicants study and prepare a specific range of knowledge according to their category. On the other hand, recent international public administration focuses on the nature of human beings within the framework and has a strong tendency toward "colors."

For example, there is active research on representative bureaucracy, which seeks to reflect the diverse "colors" of humans—such as gender and race—in administrative organizations. This aims for democratic administrative management by hiring civil servants in proportions similar to the population ratios of men, women, and LGBTQ individuals. Since civil servants under a representative bureaucracy are required to demonstrate not only expertise in their administrative field but also behaviors and attitudes that respect diversity, recruitment methods such as interviews become necessary.

Without appropriate "lines" in broad administration, it is impossible to provide administrative services in an organized and efficient manner. However, by discovering diverse human beings within the framework of lines and allowing for some "colors" that overflow those lines, perhaps public administration can make human society even richer.