Nearly eight months have passed since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power on a slogan of shifting decision-making power and processes from bureaucrats to elected politicians with a view to reducing or eliminating excessive reliance on bureaucrats. As a result of this shift, three distinctly different patterns have emerged in the workings between bureaucrats and politicians:

• Bureaucrats try to retain the leading roles they have long played in drawing up and implementing policies by cooperating with, but at the same time, utilizing politicians to their advantage.

• Bureaucrats try to distance themselves from politicians and only cooperate with them to the extent necessary for avoiding the worst consequences.