The legend of the “overnight castle” built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) in Sunomata (now Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture) and Ishigakiyama (now Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture) has been passed down from generation to generation.
People would have been unable to believe their eyes when they saw emerging from the morning mist a huge castle on the mountain top, where no structure had been seen at dusk the previous day.
Knocking down the stone structure of a pyramid to make it cylindrical would be no less difficult than building Toyotomi’s overnight castle. I am referring to the major task of putting an end to the brokering of postretirement jobs for bureaucrats by government ministries and agencies by the end of this year–a pledge made by Prime Minister Taro Aso.
While some of their colleagues who joined the civil service in the same year have climbed the career ladder, many bureaucrats find themselves prodded to leave their ministries or agencies before retirement age. The personnel structure of a government ministry is pyramid shaped with the veteran administrative vice minister–the most senior in the organization–standing at the peak and new recruits at the base.
The elimination of the amakudari practice of bureaucrats landing cushy jobs in the public or private sectors, would lead to many bureaucrats not on the fast track remaining in their ministry or agency until retirement age.
Bureaucrats in the Kasumigaseki district in Tokyo, where government offices are concentrated, are likely to fight every inch of the way to thwart the planned transition to a cylindrical personnel structure.
The prime minister’s spirited intention of doing his utmost to eradicate the amakudari practice, which has sown the seeds of corruption, is praiseworthy. But, this “construction project” will hardly succeed without detailed blueprints and unbending faith in the initiative.
According to some accounts, the overnight fortress in Ishigakiyama was a papier-mache castle created overnight by building a skeleton structure in the woods, covering it with paper to give the impression of white walls and then cutting down the trees surrounding it.
I hope the “11-month castle” the prime minister has confidently said he will build will not turn out to be a structure of papier–mache.
The Yomiuri Shimbun. Musings.The following is a translation of the Henshu Techo column from The Yomiuri Shimbun.
豊臣秀吉「一夜城」の伝説が、墨俣(すのまた)（岐阜県）や石垣山（神奈川県）に残っている。暮れ方には何もなかった山の上に朝靄(あさもや)をついて巨大な城郭が姿を現せば、人々は目を疑ったことだろう
ピラミッドの石組みを崩し、円柱形に組み直す作業も、むずかしさの度合いでは秀吉の一夜城に劣らない。麻生首相の明言した「天下り斡旋(あっせん)の年内全廃」とはそういう大工事である
同期が出世するにつれ、多くの人が定年前に退職していく諸官庁は、入省年次の最も古い次官を頂点に、新人を底辺にもつピラミッドである。天下りの全廃で、出世コースを外れた官僚も定年まで勤めることになる。円柱形への移行を嫌い、霞が関は死に物狂いで抵抗するだろう
汚職の温床、天下りの根絶にかける首相の意気やよし…としても、綿密な設計図と不動の信念なくして工事の成功は期しがたい
石垣山の一夜城は樹林の中に骨組みをつくり、紙を張って白壁と見せかけ、周囲の樹木を一夜のうちに伐採して出現させた“張り子の城”であったとも伝えられる。首相がドンと胸を叩(たた)いた「１１か月城」が、張り子に終わらぬことを祈る。
Hachiyorenge 
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