Is there a conspiracy among Japanese politicians, economic experts and elite bureaucrats to destroy Japan's egalitarian postwar social and economic systems and replace them with an American-style, dog-eat-dog type of capitalism typified by a society of haves and have-nots? In his best-selling "Nenshu 300 man-en jidai o ikinuku keizaigaku (Economics for Surviving in an Age of Annual Incomes of 3 million yen)," Takuro Morinaga argues that this -- deliberately or not -- will be the result of Japan's current policies.

He charges that putting priority on structural reform and bad loan disposal instead of ending deflation hurts ordinary Japanese and helps the rich.

In particular, Morinaga warns, the government's five-pronged hidden agenda will create a new ruling class in a decade: