The Japanese civil service employs over three million employees, with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, with 247,000 personnel, being the biggest branch. In the post-war period, this figure has been even higher, but the privatization of a large number of public corporations since the 1980s, including NTT, Japanese National Railways, and Japan Post, already reduced the number.

The majority of civil servants (2.74 million) are employed by local governments, while around 585,000 are national government civil servants. National civil servants are divided into "special" and "regular" service categories. Appointments in the special service category are governed by political or other factors and do not involve competitive examinations. This category includes cabinet ministers, heads of independent agencies, members of the Self-Defense Forces, Diet officials, and ambassadors.

The core of the national civil service is composed of members of the regular service, who are recruited through competitive examinations. This group is further divided into the General Service and the Comprehensive Service, the latter forming a civil service elite.

As of 2018, there are approximately 3.33 million civil servants in Japan. Among these, the vast majority of around 2.74 million are local civil servants (Japanese: 地方公務員) working for local governments and agencies. Among the around 585,000 national civil servants (Japanese: 国家公務員), roughly 298,000 are in Special Service (Japanese: 特別職) and 287,000 are in Regular Service (Japanese: 一般職).

Special Service includes:

Regular Service employees form the rest of the national civil service, including various ministries and Incorporated Administrative Agencies. After the privatization of Japan Post, the incorporation of certain Japanese universities, and other civil service reforms, the number of regular service employees decreased from over 800,000 to around 287,000 in 2019.

Civil servants are generally recruited through competitive examinations. Civil servants are classified into three types: (1) Comprehensive Service, which engages in policy-making and research, (2) General Service, which engages mainly in "routine work", and (3) Specialists, such as tax inspectors, air traffic controllers, doctors and teachers, who are recruited by exams or other forms of assessment.

The Comprehensive Service recruits through several types of exams (known as Level I Examination), testing at levels of a university undergraduate or a graduate degree, with different exams based on the division of the Service. The General Service also recruits through exams, with an exam aimed at university graduates (Level II Examination) and an exam for high school graduates (Level III Examination). Successful candidates are interviewed, and final selection takes into account the result of interviews.