Review by Choice Review
The late Toya, who served in Japan's Ministry of Finance, makes a convincing case that the financial Big Bang policy package of 1996 represented a fundamental shift of policy making in Japan. He argues that the massive deregulation and liberalization encompassed by the Big Bang was a major departure from the continuity and cooperation that were the cornerstones of previous reforms. He challenges analysts of Japanese financial politics who emphasize the gradual nature of change of previous reforms. Toya contends that in the case of the Big Bang, "the planning was much quicker, the content was much more far-reaching (i.e., creating obvious losers), and the schedule of implementation was largely pre-fixed by the reform initiative (instead of being left to later negotiations)." The most fundamental difference from previous reforms was that the initiative did not originate from "bureaupluralism," the design of public policies produced from a consensus process organized by the bureaucrats and involving the regulated industries and LDP politicians. He uses a "rational actor" framework in support of his argument that policy failures and public scandals forced the Ministry of Finance to support these reforms even though the result would be a loss of power for the ministry. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Japanese economics collections, graduate and research. D. C. Messerschmidt Lynchburg College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
