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The story
A thread appeared on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyō G” board (a general live-discussion board) in which a poster working as a civil servant confessed, “Being a working adult is too rough — I want to quit.” The poster, apparently employed at a tax office, complained that overtime pay isn’t properly paid out, the approval process is so convoluted that they can’t keep up with their quota, and dealing with unreasonable people eats up even more time. The thread saw a mix of reactions — some asking “What’s so hard about being a civil servant?” and others countering with “The private sector is worse” or “A starting salary of ¥270,000 is plenty” — sparking debate over how workloads differ by department and what overtime pay really looks like in practice.
What people said
Working is way too rough
I kind of admire NEETs honestly
I have zero free time. I just want to watch anime in peace
I worked hard to become a civil servant but it's way too brutal
Does NanG actually like civil servants? No way
That's exactly why I'm losing hope
If the private sector is even worse than this… society is messed up
I can't think of anything
Overtime pay barely gets paid out
Between the janky computers and the incomprehensible approval process, everything takes forever — but there's still a quota, so the work never ends
And I have to deal with weird people who blow up at me unreasonably, which eats up even more time
That's rough
Watching the section chiefs, it really does look brutal — and the pay isn't even that high. Hard to watch
Anything money-related can't have a single mistake, so it really does look brutal
Tax law is insanely confusing too, so constant studying is basically required
June is closing statistics, summer's budget compilation, winter's assessment season
There's no such thing as leaving on time
Most days it's 8:30am to 7pm
Wednesdays I can actually leave on time
I'm not in a government office job, but I can tell it looks brutal
When you occasionally get someone who catches on quick, it's such a relief
I'm not at a regular government office
I work at a tax office
Did a tax accountant give you a hard time?
Tax offices sound brutal
I bet you still get old folks filing totally incomprehensible tax returns
Nobody wants to hear your sob story
You'd struggle too
Unless your parents are a company president or a landowner — different story then
Guess the private sector really is brutal
This is basically just a bunch of NEETs playing pretend at this point
LOL, for real
Well, myself included, there's probably a lot of us low-level grunts here lol
Hard to talk about "responsibility" for a group that never gets fired and gets its budget refilled with tax money every year lol
The jock-culture vibe of the approval process is disgustingly cringe
What's that lol, a "jock-culture" approval process?
Oh, National Tax Agency huh
Yeah, the approval process is gross. It's just a totally top-down, chain-of-command kind of organization
Sorry, I'm at a tax office so I wouldn't know
For a university grad, starting pay is around ¥270,000
Starting pay is ¥270,000
Commuting allowance included (a 6-month pass paid out every half-year), housing subsidy of ¥20,000-30,000 (depends on the municipality), bonus of 4.65 months' pay
By that math you're definitely clearing ¥4 million by year one
Though that's assuming you're a university grad
Also, if you're working overtime, only getting a 45-minute break would violate labor law — the National Tax Agency wouldn't mess up like that
Even in the most brutal departments, it's a 45-minute break.
Also, overtime pay doesn't cover all the extra hours worked, so converted to an hourly rate it comes out to like ¥500 lol
Did you get hit with a "red ticket" (a serious traffic violation)?
Well, society is harsh on people with a criminal record
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Working conditions for local government employees are said to vary widely by department, and in this thread the accounting division, the finance division, and tax offices were all singled out as especially brutal. Local governments also tend to see set finish times fall by the wayside during a string of busy seasons — closing statistics in June, budget compilation from summer onward, and assessments in winter. It’s also worth noting that Japan’s Labor Standards Act requires a 45-minute break for work exceeding 6 hours and a 60-minute break for work exceeding 8 hours, so the “45-minute break” the poster mentioned is actually operating at the legal minimum rather than being a clear violation. At the same time, there’s a real gap between the popular image of civil servants having it easy and the poster’s claim that overtime pay doesn’t match the actual workload in some departments — and that gap is exactly what split opinion in the thread. That said, this reflects one poster’s personal experience, and working conditions can vary greatly by municipality and department.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyō G) thread “Civil Servant Here, Being a Working Adult Is Too Rough, I Want to Quit.”
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