The central government will be reorganized Jan. 6, 2001 with the number of ministries and agencies to be cut almost in half to 13 from the present 22. The shakeup is based on a program worked out with great difficulty by the Adminis trative Reform Council, an ad hoc panel created under the Hashimoto administration (Jan. 1996 - July 1998).
In this connection, I want to make two important points. The first is that policy initiatives must be taken under the sound and creative leadership of the Prime Minister's Office (the Cabinet Office). The other is that preparations for a second reorganization, including creation of a "communications and information ministry," should start immediately after Jan. 6.
For decades Japan's policymaking process has been described in terms of "kanryo shudo" (bureaucratic leadership). During the Cold War, during which the nation's political world was ideologically polarized between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Socialist Party, there was a tacit role-sharing agreement between politicians and bureaucrats.