Japan - Restless Competitor by Dr Malcolm Trevor Malcolm Trevor

Author:Dr Malcolm Trevor, Malcolm Trevor [Dr Malcolm Trevor, Malcolm Trevor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781134278343
Google: yDhdAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-12-16T04:56:27+00:00

Chapter 4

Power Holders – The Iron Triangle

(1) The Bureaucrats: Policy-Makers and Regulators

Will the Japanese ever be democratic? – European businessman.

The Iron Triangle, known also to some as the Devil’s Triangle, is a powerfully evocative image of the grip that the three controlling élites, namely the bureaucracy, big business and political bosses, have on Japan. These ‘three biggest sources of power’ and the collusive relations between them make up a system that differs from that prescribed by the Constitution i.e. ‘a democratic state, ruled by a popularly elected representative government’. Conspicuous features are ‘the dictatorship of the bureaucracy’ and ‘the ever-present influence of organized crime’, which, coupled with domestic standards of living that do not reflect Japan’s huge economic advances, make these achievements less attractive in the eyes of some Japanese.1

This does not mean that the three groupings always see eye to eye. In other words, they are not a monolith. Business may chafe under bureaucratic regulation, while appreciating that the bureaucracy protects them from intrusion into their cartels, especially by foreigners. Bureaucrats do not like politicians interfering in their decisions and helped to bring about the downfall of one of the most notorious LDP fixers, Shin Kanemaru, ostensibly no more than an ex-vice president of the party at the time but known popularly as ‘the Don’ for his skills in behind the scenes manipulation. On the other hand, politicians have been seeking to capitalize on the MOF’s serious loss of popularity due to the financial crisis by getting their hands on the MOF’s power: something that is easier said than done without inside knowledge and leverage.2

At a unifying level, there is general agreement about the direction in which Japan’s politico-economic system should be aimed and how it should be run and it is within this famous ‘consensus’ that the three élites exist in a close symbiosis. The membership of the three élites and the vertical order running from those who have worked their way up to the top and control the levers of power down to those who aspire to get power in the future are clearly identifiable:3 as are policies to promote the national economy, such as MITI’s advocacy against Bank of Japan scepticism to protect and nurture the all-important motor industry, or the famous ‘income-doubling’ policy of the 1960s. For anyone interested in political theories of how different states are governed, Japan is a textbook example of rule by élites.4

For the bureaucrats the authority to issue or withhpld licences is a major source of power. At the top of the table is the Ministry of Transport; … with complete authority over land, marine and air transport. … and shipping charges’, controlling entry to these industries. Despite all the talk about deregulation, it had authority over 2,017 types of licences in 1985, 1,966 in 1991 and still approximately the same number in 1994: not much change in nine years.

In fact, between 1985 and 1991 most ministries had actually increased the number of types of licences under their control. In

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