TOKYO – The ratio of women who passed non-career-track national civil service examinations rose 3.4 points from the previous year to a record 37.3 percent in fiscal 2019, the government said Tuesday.

Among the 7,605 successful applicants for the jobs, down 177 from the previous year, the number of women increased 200 to 2,839, also a record high.

Of them, 4,304 are expected to start working as public servants in April next year, while the others declined positions because they were not assigned to the ministries or agencies they wished to enter or because they decided to join private firms, according to the National Personnel Authority.

The increase of successful female applicants came as the Japanese government promotes the employment of women to cope with a declining workforce amid the aging population.

By type of job, 5,675 passed the tests for administrative work and 1,930 cleared the exams for technical work such as civil engineering and agriculture, the authority said.

The total number of applicants was 29,893, down from 33,582 the previous year, with one in 3.9 examinees passing the test — the highest success rate since the current exam began in fiscal 2012 — as private companies intensified recruitment activities amid a labor shortage.