Abstract

The article involves consideration of the system of formation of the Japanese economic bureaucracy in the post-war period. In the post-war era, Japan’s powerful central bureaucracy contributed to rapid economic growth, high standards of education and health care, domestic stability, and peaceful international relations. The apparatus of civil servants combined democratic politics with strong administrative potential and partial isolation from the pressure of interest groups. Central ministry officials devised a compromise between autonomy and involvement in which they played a distinctly political role in facilitating deals among key interest groups. However, the power and isolation of the bureaucracy also limited the participation of civic groups and minority interests in the political process, limited accountability to the general public, and encouraged collusion with politicians and interest groups. The dominance of the bureaucracy began to erode in the 1970s when politicians went beyond the Treasury budget to expand the welfare state and increase public works spending for their constituents. The bureaucracy faced even more serious problems in the 1990s, including a financial crisis that abruptly ended a period of rapid growth, an electoral reform that changed political dynamics, and a gradual erosion of the efficient work of the state apparatus.