The Ministry: How Japan's Most Powerful Institution Endangers World Markets

This first full-length expos in English of Japan's all-powerful institution, the Ministry of Finance, not only reveals the inner workings of the Ministry but also sounds a warning about the impact of its growing abuses of power on world financial markets.

Japan's Ministry of Finance--the mighty Okurasho--controls the majority of the country's largest corporations, banks, and national financial institutions. Yet, it bows to neither Parliament nor the Prime Minister. In effect, its actions can sway the Japanese economy and affect financial markets worldwide. The real danger lies in the fact that it has focused on nation-building at any cost, acting increasingly from pure unenlightened self-interest-as evidenced by its role in the recent Daiwa scandal.

This timely and engaging book sounds a warning that any manager, investor, or regulator who deals with world markets, and especially with Japan, cannot afford to ignore.

The Ministry is Peter Hartcher's fascinating look into Japan's most powerful, but least known institution, the Ministry of Finance. It's an institution that's firmly embedded in Japan's cultural fabric and can trace its origins back 1200 years. It's been compared to the IRS, the SEC, the Federal Reserve, and U.S. Treasury all rolled into one. And it's largely responsible for the economic mess that Japan finds itself in today.

Hartcher's account is the story of a ministry who arranges marriages for its key personnel, a place where employees rarely go home, and where staff members routinely die of exhaustion caused by overwork. Hartcher shows that even though the Ministry's nationalistic policies have helped to create phenomenally low unemployment, its resistance to open markets and increasing incompetence is a dangerous liability, not only to its own economy, but the global economy as well. Anyone who's interested in how Japan really works will find this an indispensable read.