Gerald L. Curtis :: When we talk about
bureaucrats in Japan, we’re talking about two very different groups
of people. There are the large numbers of civil servants who do all the
normal, mundane, and routine business involved in running a government.
But then there is a small group of elite bureaucrats who hold the most
important positions in the major ministries such as Finance, or International
Trade and Industry, Health and Welfare, Education, and so on, who are
few in number and have a great deal of prestige and a great deal of power.
And so when we talk about the Japanese bureaucracy, we’re usually
referring to this small elite within the Japanese governmental administrative
structure. |