Shinzo Abe seeks to wrest power of appointment from civil servants
Japanese prime minister's effort to seize control of top appointments is seen as the biggest threat to public servants since the US occupation
The bureaucracy that oversaw Japan's post-war economic boom and a two-decade stagnation faces the biggest threat to its power since the US occupation as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks to seize control of ministries' most senior appointments.
The plan would open a path to accelerating change as Abe, 58, readies steps from strengthening the military to bringing Japan into the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc and paring agriculture regulation.
Enacting it could bring an end to promotions influenced by tenure and support from bureaucratic peers in a system cemented over decades when politicians relied on civil servants to nurture exports and dole out public works.
"When you want to change the direction of national strategy, it becomes very important to rein in the bureaucracy," said Kenneth Pyle, a University of Washington professor of Asian studies in Seattle, who has been teaching Japanese history since the 1960s. "Abe realises that if he's going to succeed he has to be able to centralise policymaking." The civil service wields power over the budget, from approving construction projects to bestowing foreign aid. Seniority often trumps merit in deciding appointments.
Success isn't certain - three similar attempts in the past five years unravelled as officials, along with some lawmakers, pushed back against change. The Democratic Party of Japan swept into office in 2009 on a platform that included a vow to wrest power from the ministries, only to end up enacting the first legislation to raise the national sales tax since 1997 - something long sought by the Finance Ministry.