Episode 603 – The Bureaucrats, Part 2

November 14, 2025

This week: the Meiji Bureaucracy, in all its glory. How did the system actually work? What sorts of people did it attract? And what happened when the United States tried to reform the system after 1945?

Sources

Koh, B.C. Japan’s Administrative Elite.

Pempel, T.J. “The Tar Baby Target: ‘Reform’ of the Japanese Bureaucracy.” in Democratizing Japan: The Allied Occupation. Eds: Robert E Ward, Yoshikazu Sakamoto

The earliest homes of the Japanese bureaucracy were converted residences like this one–a yashiki, or daimyo compound, that once belonged to the Kuroda clan. It was converted for use by the Foreign Ministry until its present location in Kasumigaseki south of the Imperial Palace was selected.
The Justice Ministry building in Kasumigaseki (c.1910), still in use today. It’s a very classically Meiji piece of architecture and conveys the more Westernized aspect of the bureaucracy quite well.
A view down Sakurada-dori south of the imperial palace in 1910. These are the Justice Ministry, Supreme Court, and Navy Ministry (left to right).
Kasumigaseki in 1910 with the major ministries highlighted. Their proximity to the imperial palace (closer even than the Diet building) also says a lot about the relationship between the emperor and bureaucracy. Courtesy of Old Tokyo.