More Japan government officials moonlighting

The government in Japan is allowing more officials to take on second jobs to help relieve the country’s labour shortage.

Officials in Japan are known to be strictly forbidden from earning extra income outside of their jobs especially with profit driven and private companies to prevent conflict of interests.

But the government has relaxed its stance on that and it is reflected by the issuing of 41,669 approvals in 2018, according to the internal affairs ministry.

Officials are encouraged to “be involved directly in addressing local challenges and make good use of such experiences in their regular jobs” and they must not have been involved in work related to any municipal contracts signed with the company in question in the past five years.

11,506 of the side jobs approved were related to activities that contribute to society, including traditional events, disaster preparation and response, crime prevention, and support for sports, cultural and art activities.

The other 30,163 jobs ranged from agriculture and real estate to family businesses.