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Explaining Policy Failure: Japan and the International Economy, 1969–1971

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Robert C. Angel
Robert C. Angel
Affiliation:
Political Science, University of South Carolina
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Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of Japan's most serious postwar blunder: failure to define and implement effective and timely counter-measures to deal with its change from deficit to surplus international monetary status during the 1969–1971 period. It concludes that intense bureaucratic compartmentalization and a lack of supra-ministerial leadership of national policy were key determinants of this failure, leaving Japan's political system dependent upon irresistible external pressure (gai-atsu,) in this case from the United States, to define and force implementation of necessary policy changes. This critical but largely ignored episode illustrates a negative aspect of the traditional insulation of Japan's national bureacracy from political (as opposed to administrative) interference in the definition and pursuit of basic national policy objectives.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 1988 , pp. 175 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

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