After the banquet: Japan’s power elite revisited

Abstract

The demise of Japan’s iron triangle, consisting of the LDP’s parliamentary party, the central ministries and the keiretsu conglomerates ruling Japan conjointly, has been diagnosed since some time now (Thayer, 1993; Blechinger, 2001). After more than one decade of an unprecedented crisis in Japan’s political economy which severely tested the competences and the legitimacy of Japan’s ruling classes it is about time to resume and to take stock of changes and continuities in her power structures. In a nutshell it appears that (1) the political system after serious shifts and jolts during the 1990s has reverted to the old one-and-a-half party system—with the conservative democrats (DPJ) displacing the Socialists of old as the main opposition party-and with the LDP remaining firmly in the lead role, exercising increased zoku control over the ministries and continuing hereditary pork barrel oriented constituency politics as its power base. The role of the party’s factions appears as somewhat diminished. (2) the central bureaucracy suffered a gradual erosion of functions and legitimacy, affecting notably the lead ministries MOF, MITI (METI) and MFA. This was however compensated in part by the large discretionary spending volumes disbursed by the merged Infrastructure Ministry (MLIT), the supervisory functions of the new Financial Services Agency (FSA), and the strengthened competences of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). (3) the prolonged economic crisis and asset deflation affecting city banks as keiretsu lead managers consequent to a series of bank mergers has seen some keiretsu disintegrate or amalgamate. Yet it appears that other keiretsu, like Sumitomo (having taken over Mitsui) and Mitsubishi remain consolidated, while some of the previously less integrated banking keiretsu continue in a fairly oversized and loosely merged fashion. Thus the keiretsu system’s micro-economic importance may have eroded somewhat compared to their heydays in the 1980s. Still keiretsu affiliated companies continue to dominate organized zaikai business interests, like the merged Keidanren–Nikkeiren.