MITI and the Japanese miracle

¹³

This high social status linked them back in time to the samurai and forward to the postwar bureaucrats in their possession of intrinsic authority rather than extrinsic, or legal-rational, office. It meant that they were largely free of external constraints. 'The present-day bureaucrat,' writes Henderson, 'is not, of course, identical with the warrior bureaucrat of the Tokugawa regime or even the new university-trained Imperial bureaucrat of prewar Japan. But they have all, until recently, been largely above the law in the sense of independent judicial review.' Rather than a rule of law, Henderson finds that 'a rule of bureaucrats prevails.''

¹⁴

Isomura and Kuronuma concur. Even in the postwar world, they argue, Japan has had an administration 'for the sake of the citizenry' and not an administration carried out with the 'participation of the citizenry.' In

Page 39

TABLE

2

Changes in the Size of the Japanese Electorate, 18901969

Election

Date

Qualified voters (millions)

Population (millions)

Percent

Voting requirements

1

July 1, 1890

.45

39.9

1.3%

Males, over 25, who pay more than ?15 in direct, national taxes

^a

7

August 10, 1902

.98

45.0

2.18

Same, except ?10 in direct taxes

14

May 10, 1920

3.1

55.5

5.50

Same, except ?3 in direct taxes

16

February 20, 1928

12.4

62.1

19.98

Same, except tax requirement abolished

22

April 10, 1946

36.9

75.8

48.65

All men and women

20 years and

above

25

October 1, 1952

46.8

85.9

54.45