The Ministry: How Japan's Most Powerful Institution Endangers World Markets

Abstract

Japan's of Finance -- the all-powerful Okurasho -- has a single objective: nation building at any cost. Tracing its medieval origins and authority back to a divine mandate, the bows to neither Parliament nor the Prime Minister. Staffed not by economists as in the Western world, but by graduates of the elite Tokyo University Law School, the Ministry's reclusive leadership and extensive Old Boy network literally control the majority of the country's largest corporations, banks, and national financial institutions. It can, for example, bestow on any industry the legal right to form a cartel for generating unusually large profits. Hartcher demonstrates that the increasingly acts from pure unenlightened self-interest, as evidenced by its role in the recent Daiwa scandal, and not in Japan's national interest despite the Japanese people's unquestioning trust in it. It is a dangerous institution to world financial markets and economic growth, and one that must be exposed. This is an inside, authoritative, read that should satisfy Japan hands and nonspecialists alike.-- Week [ The Ministry ] builds momentum through its often stunning accounts of betrayal of the public trust to become a searing indictment of Japanese bureaucrats lost in deep denial.-- The New York Times Book Review ...Filled with fascinating details and explanations that shine a needed light on Pacific Rim economics and into the vastness of the MoF.-- Publishers Weekly, February 13, 1998 book couldn't be timelier.--IndustryWeek Peter Hartcher's new book on Japan's of Finance...is essential reading. Hartcher expertlyaddresses the growing concern, both within Japan and around the world, of this all-powerful institution.... The Ministry is a must-read for all business executives who operate in global markets.-- Electronic Business