THE NATIONAL BUREAUCRACY OF JAPAN

Japan's national bureaucracy (higher civil service) has since its ince ption in the late 19th century remained a remarkably powerful and resi lient institution. Impressionistically, at least, its power and presti ge equal, if not surpass, those of its French counterpart, reputedly t he most potent national civil service in the West. With the passage of time the Japanese bureaucracy has evolved from the days when its memb ers were the Emperor's loyal servants to the post-war period where the y have been redefined as 'public servants'. Particularly as the post-w ar democratic political system and its party-based politics became ins titutionalized during the past 50 years, there has emerged an increasi ng debate as to whether and to what extent the power of the national b ureaucracy has been affected or modified (Kyoiku-sha, 1980; Yawata, 19 95). This is a highly intriguing issue which perhaps constitutes an un dercurrent of some of the articles contained in this special issue. Th e purpose of this particular article, at least at one level, is to pro vide a backdrop to that query. As such, the present article focuses on some of the more salient dimensions of the national bureaucracy as it operates in a highly advanced industrial but at the same time profoun dly unique non-western society.