In Defense of Japanese Bureaucracy

Bibliographic Data

ID4453612
AuthorsPeter F Drucker (0000-0002-3540-6196, corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume77
Issue5
Pages68
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueForeign Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-7120 • E-ISSN: 2327-7793
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/20049051
OpenAlexW2539461530
LanguageEN
Citations received6

American policy on Japan, especially during Asia's economic crisis, is based on five assumptions that have become articles of faith for most American policymakers, Japan scholars, and even a good many business executives. But all of them are either plain wrong or, at best, highly dubious: 1. The government bureaucracy's dominance is assumed to be unique to Japan, like its near-monopoly on policymaking and its control ofbusiness and the economy through administrative guidance. 2. Reducing the bureaucracy's role to what it should be?the experts on tap but not on top?would not be that difficult. All that is needed is political will. 3. A ruling elite like the Japanese bureaucracy is both unnecessary in a modern developed society and undesirable in a democracy. 4. The Japanese bureaucracy's resistance to deregulation, especially now in the financial sector, is nothing but a selfish clinging to power that will do severe damage. By delaying the inevitable, it can only make things worse. 5. Finally, the Japanese?they are intelligent people, after all?put the economy first, as we do. The right assumptions about Japan, however, are: 1. Bureaucracies dominate almost all developed countries. The United States and a few less populous English-speaking countries

Bureaucracy · Economic system · Economics · Political science · Politics · Japanese History and Culture · Law