Photo/Illutration Makiko Yamada, Cabinet public relations secretary, speaks at a Lower House Budget Committee session on Feb. 25. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

"Kanryo-tachi no Natsu" (The summer of bureaucrats), which is novelist Saburo Shiroyama's (1927-2007) seminal work, portrays officials of the former Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) during the years of Japan's rapid economic growth.

The protagonist is a MITI bureaucrat by the name of Shingo Kazagoshi, whose motto is: "We work for our country, not for Cabinet ministers."

Refusing to rise from his seat to greet the trade minister visiting him in his office, Kazagoshi boldly starts arguing with him.

Kazagoshi was modeled on a real-life bureaucrat who was apparently quite a character in his day.

The intensity of the zeal and pride of government officials varied by individuals, of course, but the novel does vividly depict the zeitgeist of the era that enabled "patriotic" bureaucrats to shine.

According to research in the field of public administration, those patriotic types have since been overtaken by "coordinator-type" and then "clerical-type" officials.

Based on this theory, former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Hideaki Tanaka laments in his "Kanryo-tachi no Fuyu" (The winter of bureaucrats) that "subcontractor-type" bureaucrats have now become the predominant force.

These individuals do the bidding of the prime minister's office without question and even anticipate what their bosses would like them to do--and act accordingly.

In an abrupt turn of events, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's top public relations aide, Makiko Yamada, resigned on March 1 after becoming embroiled in a wining and dining scandal.

Yamada had been treated to a sumptuous dinner of prime Japanese beef and seafood, costing 70,000 yen ($655) per person, by a company where Suga's eldest son works.

Only last week, she told the Diet that she intended to stay in her job and make up for her mistake, and the prime minister himself came to her defense.

I have no way of knowing how Yamada really felt, but I strongly suspect she wanted to resign much sooner. I say this because she appeared quite reluctant to answer questions in the Diet.

Does this represent a new kind of tragedy unfolding in the bureaucracy? Over the last few years, I have seen far too many scenes of senior bureaucrats practically gritting their teeth as they forced themselves to offer implausible explanations to support far-fetched arguments made by powerful politicians.

Politics and bureaucracy ought to work together as two wheels. But now, the balance has been lost and no vigor can be felt in Kasumigaseki, the seat of Japanese bureaucracy.

It feels as if winter is already over for Kasumigaseki. It's in an ice age now.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 2

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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