日本中樞之崩壞

Shigeaki Koga, METI Official & Author of "Nihon Chusu no Hokai"

Time: 2011 Jun 21 12:00 - 14:00
Summary:

PROFESSIONAL LUNCHEON
Shigeaki Koga,
METI Official & Author of "Nihon Chusu no Hokai"
(Collapse of Japan's Central Administration)

Language:

The speech and Q& A will be in Japanese with English interpretaion

Description:

" A reform-minded bureaucrat at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry "

Shigeaki Koga is an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) who could have chosen the traditional path as a career bureaucrat, anticipating a lucrative post-retirement life -- if he just followed the orders of his superiors and politicians.

But the career bureaucrat decided to speak out, saying what he thought was right for his ministry, the government, the nation and above all its people. Many outside the Nagata-cho loop lauded him for his courage. But many influential bureaucrats and politicians, including Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, didn't like the defiant METI official.

As a result, Koga is now assigned to the minister's secretariat to stay put. But he has no plans to keep his mouth shut and has agreed to come to the club to tell it all, including why Sengoku, then Chief Cabinet secretary, intimidated him in a parliamentary session last fall for re-emphasizing the need for reform of the civil service system.

Koga is not giving up his campaign to bring honesty and credibility to the Japanese government particularly after the March 11 disasters.

He recently published a book titled "Nihon Chusu no Hokai" (Collapse of Japan's Central Administration) in which he sharply criticized Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of the nuclear accident as a man-made disaster.

Koga, a native of Nagasaki Prefecture, joined the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1980 after graduating from the University of Tokyo. He has held various posts such as a principal administrator at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and an executive of the government-backed turnaround entity Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan.

Menu:Sauteed Pork Chop with Onion Gravy, Potatoes and Green Vegetables, Seasonal Salad

Shigeaki Koga, METI Official & Author of "Nihon Chusu no Hokai"

"Nihon Chusu no Hokai" (Collapse of Japan's Central Administration)

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Book slamming Japan's "graveyard" bureaucracy a hit

By Yuko Takeo

TOKYO | Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:34am EDT

(Reuters Life!) - It belongs to an unpopular genre and lacks a gripping title, but a Japanese book blasting the country's bureaucratic elite -- by a bureaucrat -- is proving an unlikely hit with a nation fed up at a lagging response to the massive March disaster.

"Collapse of Japan's Central Administration," by the outspoken Shigeaki Koga, is a tale of internal bickering, falsehood and the stifling culture within the Japanese bureaucracy which led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and hinders recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Calling Kasumigaseki, the name of the Tokyo area housing Japan's bureaucracy, "a graveyard for talent," Koga -- who works at the powerful trade ministry -- slammed a lack of cooperation between ministries and a system that does not reward bureaucrats who try to serve the nation rather than their ministries.

"It's convincing because it's been written by a top official at the ministry, who's actually working there," said Tsuguo Nishike, who runs a bookstore in Akasaka, just a stone's throw from Japan's parliament building.

"It had excellent timing as well. Everyone has been curious about what's been happening behind the scenes about Fukushima."

Koga, who has been at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for over 30 years, drew official ire earlier this year when he wrote an memo picking apart the logic of the backroom deal his ministry was crafting to save Tokyo Electric Power from bankruptcy because of mounting liability due to the Fukushima crisis.

An advocate of tough-love restructuring, Koga in 2003 helped create a new agency to speed the restructuring of Japanese "zombie" firms such as retailer Daiei.

But his push for a similar handling of the power firm prompted requests for him to leave the ministry, media reports said. Though he has hung onto his post, he has also taken the unusual step of going public with his criticism in the media.

His book, which has been among the top 100 sellers on Amazon Japan since its publication in May, has sold more than 380,000 copies -- quite unusual for a serious political book.

"It's been reigning at the top of the shelf virtually from the week it was published," said Eiji Koshiba, who manages another Akasaka bookstore.

"Compared to its competitors, it's head and shoulders ahead, selling double or triple similar books in the genre."