Abstract
The history of the modern Japanese bureaucracy is said to date back to the establishment of the cabinet system in 1885. Certainly this is the event that marks the beginning of the ministerial bureaucracies, but in actuality a traditional system of government known as the Daijokan had been functioning all along. It continued to function as the adminisstrative organization in the government, even after the Meiji Restoration. As the bureaucratic state evolved, administrative powers expanded farther, but comparatively little progress was made in exerting control within government organization. Many conditions, for example, the system of individual leadreship authority and the establishment of the Burear of State Secrets, combined against further unification of government administration. As Japan moved to wartime, the government tried to overcome sectionalism by establishing an inner cabinet and a National Policy Coordination Agency. Every time administrative reform is discussed, the damages from overly compartmentalied government are dutifully pointed out and the need for a general oordination mechanism advocated, but overcoming sectionalism remains one of the largest tasks that we face. So I treated this problem as the main aspect of Japanese public administration, and picked up several cases of administrative reform in prewer Japan with Daijokan system and National Policy Coordination Agency.
