The bureaucracy played a crucial role in the building of the modern Japanese state and its economic growth in the postwar years. But these days people's trust in bureaucrats has been shattered by events such as the pension records fiasco and the misuse of public money, especially in road construction.
With low economic growth and a rapidly graying society shrinking the pool of public funds, it is the elected representatives of the people who should prioritize policies and projects, not bureaucrats with vested interests. Therefore, the political parties' campaign call for breaking the system of bureaucracy-led politics is logical and reasonable.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposes giving the Cabinet's personnel bureau the authority to appoint high-ranking bureaucrats, appointing special aides for the prime minister to develop national strategy, reviewing the pay system for public servants, and preventing retiring bureaucrats from landing jobs at companies and other bodies that are under the jurisdiction of their ministries and agencies.