This volume analyzes how the Japanese civil service has contributed to Japan's phenomenally successful economic growth, and provides much new information about its structure, function, and policymaking activities. It emphasizes the degree of competitiveness within the Japanese bureaucracy; the extent to which political authority, rather than formal power, is wielded; and the way in which government policy has stimulated market forces. Written by experts in the field, this work will be invaluable to economists and policymakers interested in the Japanese system and in models for developing and transitional economies.
This is a remarkable book. It brings together many of the leading Japanese and American political scientists working on Japan...there are lessons to be learned from the Japanese experience, positive and negative, and this is probably the best collection of essays available to tease them out. --
TimeHigher Education Supplement While this volume neither is nor presumes to be the final word on the role of Japan's civil service in economic development, its harvest of information and assessment represents a most welcome addition to the English language literature on Japan's political economy. --
American Political ScienceReview This volume brings together more valuable material on public administration and economic development in Japan in one place, in English, than to my knowledge can be found anywhere else. --
The Journal of Developing Areas