The Bureaucracy: Japanese Politics 101
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.พ. 2018
- Welcome back to Japanese Politics 101!
In this episode we discuss one of the lesser known yet very powerful parts of Japan's government: the bureaucracy. In many countries being a bureaucrat does not equal having a good career - but this is the opposite in Japan. Join host Timothy Langley and Michael Cucek in this new episode of Japanese Politics 101!
Subscribe to the Langley Esquire TH-cam channel for more weekly videos!
/ langleyesquire
Tokyo on Fire is also available on:
iTunes:
itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
To learn more about Langley Esquire, visit our website:
www.langleyesquire.com
Thanks for putting this series out. These work very nicely as supplemental materials to the course I teach on Japanese politics.
So glad to hear it. Thank you for the kind comment and your continued support!
Used to be. Certainly in the second half of the 20th century they were the best. The cream of Todai, Kyodai went into national or prefectural bureaucracy. MOF, MITI were the cream. But this is no longer the case. The level of competence is not as high as it was. And it no longer is the only stability in Japanese government. Cabinets would come and go with bewildering frequency but the bureaucrats were always there. As Michael properly said, they promoted within their own ranks and controlled that process. They created policy and wrote most of the legislation that was eventually passed in the Diet. They also stonewalled, slowed and stop changes that did not meet their objectives. Blocking elected officials from moving forward with what they wanted to do. In the past 15 years that has now changed quite a bit. The Kantei now controls senior promotions. The Kantei now controls legislation. But if you watch closely with some of the issues about documents not being available in Defense, Tax and Health Ministries and then appearing in the hands of an opposition party member one has to wonder whether the bureaucrats who got passed over are pushing back in the ways they can.
Michael and Timothy, thank you very much for this series of videos! You have helped me a lot to understand how Japanese politics works, and this is exactly what I needed for my personal project. I hope, one day you will continue the series :) Best wishes!
Love this series
Yes, I in fact wanted to be a bureaucrat when I was growing up, then I went to the tax office and decided that they were the dullest people on the face of this planet...
So now you run your own strip club or drive an Uber
Your description of the bureaucracy makes me want to see a Japanese version of Yes Minister.
Todai and LDP need to be abolished. That seems to be the only way to change how Japan works.
But why do you wanna change it?
"What would be your alternative [to bureaucracy]?"
Uh... freedom? Being able to do what you want to do without the government butting in at every corner?
In Japan that has been the recipe for warlords