It was after Meiji Imperial Restoration that the Japanese bureaucracy began to be modernized. Inauguration of Hara Dakasi cabinet in 1918 provided for an opportunity for the bureaucratic group to emerge on the front of the polity. The period of the 1930's was the radical bureaucratic and military groups pulled off a coup d'?tat, politicizing the bureaucracy. And in the 1940's, the Japanese bureaucracy was tinted with a negative image called 'controlling bureaucracy.' Anyway, the Japanese bureaucracy before the World WarII was evaluated in overall terms to have conduced greatly to institutionalization of the national administration and the national development, keeping its political neutrality as much as possible.
In 1979, Japan established 'Matsshita Academy of Politico-Economics,' and since then, has brought up the young leaders who would be taken initiative for a second Meiji Imperial Restoration. Since bureaucrats' roles had been relative in the process of rearranging the national governing system after the war, Japanese people had witnessed bureaucrat-turned prime ministers. Accordingly, bureaucrats' roles had been enhanced for a certain period of time. In other words, bureaucracy had dominated the politics in the Japanese political system for a certain period of time. It were not individual bureaucrats but their group that had exerted a strong influence over policy makings.
In short, group culture has been stronger than individualism in Japan. Even today, although politicians play more conspicious roles in policy making than before, the bureaucracy still plays important roles in drafting the budget and the policy alternatives. In particular, due to the elitism of the closed career bureaucracy, the popular departments are authorized to recruit their high-ranking officials preferentially. Such logic of the strong is one of the characteristics of the Japanese bureaucracy. Another characteristic of the Japanese bureaucracy may be the administrative guidance which is the most effective base for the bureaucratic power in Japan together with the administrative discretion applying the law and regulations.
For example, the upward agreement (or consensus) system is widely operated in not only the government departments but also private organizations; it may well be one of the characteristic Japanese decision making styles. It implies a group-wise decision making. In short, people are consolidated into a group through decision-makings. In policy makings of the Japanese bureaucracy, 'the inter-departmental negotiation (or compromise) practice' as an informal negotiation system plays an important role. The more important an agenda is, it is more subject to 'the inter-departmental negotiation.' In policy makings, 'the upward agreement system' and 'the inter-departmental negotiation practice' reflect the Japanese value system emphasizing avoidance of conflicts and importance of agreement.
The Japanese bureaucracy is evaluated to have conduced greatly to people's abundant life because it has encouraged the elite bureaucrats or the core group of policy makers to develop their professionalism and spirit of services only to help the Japanese economy and society modernized. After all, it is no doubt that the excellent bureaucrats' group has been an engine of power driving the high economic growth.
This study consists of 5 chapters. The first chapter introduces the purpose, scope and methods of the study. The second chapter reviews the Japanese bureaucracy theoretically, focusing on its development, theories about its.
The third chapter analyzes the Japanese bureaucracy, process on analyzes its, elitism of the closed career bureaucracy, administrative guidance, upward agreement system, process of coordinating the policies and institutions training the bureaucrats. The fourth chapter examines the Japanese bureaucracy and Japan's development object, focusing on lobbyist representatives, connection between polity and bureaucracy, restructuring between politicians and bureaucrats, revolution and re-engineering, leaders in the policy making process and bureaucracy. Lastly, the fifth chapter concludes the study, suggestion for the security of Korean introduces the purpose.