Everyone has experienced the frustration of being unable to get their intended message across.
Especially for people whose work involves negotiating with others, the quality of how they communicate directly affects their performance.
Koji Makino, author of The Public Servant’s Guide to Communication: How I Transformed Myself from a Socially Awkward Person, had few friends since elementary school and described himself as “socially awkward,” with little confidence in his communication skills.
However, after being assigned to the Tax Collection Division at Kurashiki City Hall, he spent his days struggling to negotiate with people behind on their taxes and began studying communication techniques.
As a result, he succeeded in collecting as much as 170 million yen in taxes in a year.
Makino has also been active not only as a city employee but as a rakugo performer, holding annual yose performances and continuing to entertain local residents.
We introduce how Makino, who wears three hats—as a public servant, author, and rakugo performer—approaches his work.
The information presented was current when this article was published in February 2022. Please note that it may differ from current information.
Koji Makino’s background
Koji Makino, who describes himself as “socially awkward,” is an employee of Kurashiki City Hall.
Makino had felt uncomfortable communicating with others since elementary school. After joining Kurashiki City in 2011, he was assigned to the Tax Collection Division.
It was a department that required communication skills to negotiate tax payments with delinquent taxpayers.
Although he felt uncomfortable interacting with people, he honed his communication techniques through his work collecting taxes.
His book, The Public Servant’s Guide to Communication: How I Transformed Myself from a Socially Awkward Person, is packed with know-how he developed through his work.
Interview with Koji Makino
Makino’s experiences as a “socially awkward” person
Could you tell us about an experience that made you feel you were not good at communicating?
Makino (surname only)
I didn’t have many friends even in elementary school, and I wasn’t confident in my communication skills.
I became acutely aware of my “social awkwardness” when I moved to Tokyo to attend university.
People I met at university sometimes made fun of my Okayama dialect, but I wasn’t outgoing enough to make a selling point of it, so I couldn’t fit in.
I felt comfortable in the prefectural dormitory, where only people from Okayama Prefecture lived. I also became reluctant to go to university, and ended up repeating two years.
I struggled with job interviews, but because I was interested in the advertising industry, I managed to join a Recruit Group operating company as a contract employee.
I thought I would be writing copy and other material, but the job was sales—bringing in new contracts.
I went door to door at hair salons in Kichijoji, but it was normal for people to ignore me or refuse to listen.
In the end, I left after three months without securing a single contract.
What kind of work did you do after joining Kurashiki City?
Makino
I returned to Okayama Prefecture, joined Kurashiki City in 2011, and was assigned to the Tax Collection Division.
I thought public service would be easy because it was stable and there were no quotas, but I realized that communication is also essential when negotiating with delinquent taxpayers.
In my third year, I was seconded to the Okayama Prefecture Tax Delinquency Resolution Promotion Organization, which handles difficult, high-value cases that municipalities in Okayama Prefecture cannot collect.
At my new assignment, I met an excellent senior colleague who also appears in the book.
He advised me that communication is an experiment: try things out first, then turn what you learn into know-how.
It was an interesting idea that had never occurred to me before. As I continued experimenting through my work, my tax collection negotiations began to go more smoothly.
Was there a particular reason you decided to compile your know-how into a book?
Makino
After working in the Tax Collection Division, I became responsible for training in the Human Resources Division.
There, I frequently saw employees who had only recently joined the city struggling with communication.
I had gone through a difficult time myself at the Recruit operating company I joined straight out of university, so I understood all too well how hard it can be for people who have just started working to struggle with communication.
That made me decide to put the know-how I had accumulated into a book, so I could explain it clearly to junior colleagues.
Were you able to include everything you wanted to say in the book?
Makino
Actually, at first I planned to publish a book not about being “socially awkward,” but under the premise that I was a “legendary tax investigator” who had achieved extraordinary results.
I had the impression that self-help books were written by people with impressive titles and achievements, so I took a proposal to a publisher that didn’t mention my “social awkwardness” at all.
But as I explored my experiences in depth with the editor, a story emerged: someone who had struggled with communication grew through what he learned on the job and achieved results.
We decided that a story about going from struggling with communication to becoming able to communicate normally would resonate more, so the book came to put my “social awkwardness” front and center.
His activities as a rakugo performer
What inspired you to start performing rakugo?
Makino
I had always wanted to try making people happy and making them laugh.
That’s when I hit upon rakugo.
However, I didn’t know anyone who could teach me rakugo, so I started by searching online for a rakugo performer.
I found a performer called “Jumbo Kinugasa,” who was active in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture.
He was a rakugo performer who drew around 1,000 audience members to a single yose performance. I began studying rakugo while attending Jumbo Kinugasa’s cultural school.
Now I’m able to hold a yose performance once a year, and around 100 people come to watch.
Has having several roles—as a public servant, author, and rakugo performer—changed anything for you?
Makino
I simply became busier.
I work as a public servant during the day, so from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I focus on my work.
If I want to do anything else, I have to make time outside of work.
When writing my book, I got up at 4 a.m. to write.
For rakugo practice, I recite my lines over and over in the car on my commute or in the bath.
I feel busy, but there’s no doubt that my life has become more enjoyable because I’m doing what I want to do.
Reflections as a public servant involved in multiple activities
Do your various activities influence one another?
Makino
For example, rakugo teaches you how to use pauses, which you can also apply to presentations.
I feel that my presentation skills have improved, and I’m also increasingly asked to lead training sessions in my work at City Hall.
Also, a public servant’s role is to support the community, so I find it rewarding when local people enjoy my yose performances.
Both my public service work and my rakugo activities are consistent in that they support the community.
I was able to write about “communication techniques” because I applied what I learned through my work as a public servant, and I’ve also used it to help train junior employees.
My main job as a public servant, writing, and rakugo have a positive influence on one another.
You write that lifetime employment for public servants is also coming to an end. Have you experienced anything that makes you feel this is happening?
Makino
I can’t say that I’ve keenly felt AI taking over simple jobs, as described in business magazines and books.
Public servants may seem to have stable jobs, but that isn’t really the case.
The work we do is specialized, and our skills may not be transferable to other industries.
Also, if an accident or something else prevents us from continuing to work, we could end up with nowhere to turn.
I realized that even public servants are in a precarious position if they don’t acquire skills.
However, if you have communication skills as a body of know-how and experience compiling them into a book, you can also work as a lecturer, sharing that know-how with many people.
Above all, as you become able to take part in various activities, you’ll build more connections with people and your life will become richer.
Reflections on the story of public servant Koji Makino, a man with three hats
In my own daily life and work, too, there have been many situations where I needed to express my opinions to others.
I sometimes felt frustrated when I couldn’t get my point across, but reading his book, The Public Servant’s Guide to Communication: How I Transformed Myself from a Socially Awkward Person, made me realize that the problem was how I communicated.
Once a difficult experience is behind us, we can carry on as if nothing happened, so many people probably don’t systematically organize ways to solve the problem.
I feel that it was precisely because Makino had a complex about communication that he was able to carefully reflect on his setbacks and build up know-how from them.
His desire to share what he had learned with junior colleagues who struggle with communication was also shaped by his own past difficulties.
I want to learn from Makino’s example of turning what he found difficult and painful into strengths.
I was reminded that people who investigate the causes of failure and change their own behavior are the ones who succeed.
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