MITI and the Japanese miracle

already burdensome regulatory bureaucracy.

Such an American policy may, however, be unrealistic for the longer term. Given the need for the United States to maintain the military balance among the nuclear powers; to reinvigorate its economy; to achieve coordination among its environmental, energy, welfare, educational, and productive policies; and to stop living off its capital; Americans should perhaps also be thinking seriously about their own 'pilot agency.' Above all the United States must learn to forecast and to coordinate the effects of its governmental policies. Agricultural policy has for too long been left outside any integrated economic strategy; commercial and economic representatives have for too long endured second-class status in the State Department's hierarchy; domestic regulatory actions have for too long been taken without a prior cost-benefit analysis of their economic impact; and a growing legal thicket has for too long replaced goal-oriented, strategic thought in economic affairs. These are some of the things that an economic pilot agency might tackle in the United States. It is not clear that the United States could ever free such an apparatus from the constraints imposed by congress, the courts, and special interest groups; but if economic

Page 324

mobilization becomes a national priority, then MITI will be an important institution to study and think about. As Peter Drucker has put it, 'The exception, the comparatively rare service institution that achieves effectiveness, is more instructive than the great majority that achieves only 'programs.''

⁶

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Appendix A

The Political and Administrative Leadership of the Trade and Industry Bureaucracy, 19251975

Ministers

Vice-ministers

I. MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (Shoko-sho *), 19251943

First

Kato

*

Takaaki Cabinet, June 11, 1924August 2, 1925 (Coalition)

1. Takahashi Korekiyo, 4/1/254/17/25

(Seiyukai*)

1. Shijo* Takafusa, 4/1/254/10/29

2. Noda Utaro*, 4/18/258/2/25 (Seiyukai)

Second Kato Takaaki Cabinet, August 2, 1925January 30, 1926 (Kenseikai)

3. Kataoka Naoharu, 8/2/251/30/26

(Minseito*)

First Wakatsuki Cabinet, January 30, 1926April 20, 1927

(Minseito

*

)

Kataoka Naoharu, 1/30/269/14/26

4. Fujisawa Ikunosuke, 9/14/264/20/27

(Minseito)

Tanaka Giichi Cabinet, April 20, 1927July 2, 1929

(Seiyukai

*

)

5. Nakahashi Tokugoro*, 4/20/277/2/29

(Seiyukai)

2. Mitsui Yonematsu, 4/10/297/2/30

Hamaguchi Cabinet, July 2, 1929April 14, 1931 (Minseito)

6. Tawara Magoichi, 7/2/294/14/31

(Minseito)

3. Tajima Katsutaro*, 7/2/3012/21/31

Second Wakatsuki Cabinet, April 14, 1931December 13, 1931 (Minseito)

7. Sakurauchi Yukio, 4/14/3112/13/31

(Minseito)

Inukai Cabinet, December 13, 1931May 26, 1932 (Seiyukai)

8. Maeda Yonezo*, 12/13/315/26/32

(Seiyukai)

4. Yoshino Shinji, 12/21/3110/7/36

(Adm.)

Saito

*

Cabinet, May 26, 1932July 8, 1934 (national unity)

9. Nakajima Kumakichi, 5/26/322/9/34