Members of the forum might be interested to know that Oxford Press has just put
out a volume in which I was co-editor along with Hyung-ki Kim, Michio Muramatsu
and Kozo Yamamura on the Japanese Civil Service and its Role in Japan's Economic
Development. This book emerged out of a World Bank study designed (in simplest
terms) to offer possible lessons for late developers about the possibly positive
role that could be played by governments in economic development.

The book has chapters by a number of scholars looking at a variety of subjects,
including the general evolution of the Japanese civil service (pre and postwar),
the links between MOF and MITI, administrative reform, amakudari, labor
relations, central-local government relations in industrial development, FILP.
Also included are several comparative chapters including one on Korea, one on
European-Japanese bureaucratic comparisons, one on Eastern Europe and one "for
practitioners."
Also of interest is the fact that the book seeks to look at both the positive
and the negative aspects of the civil services' role in Japan. Hence I don't
think it is by any means a replay of the theme of "Gee, what every country needs
is a far sighted MITI...."
A warning: the book is priced to help solve Britain's national financial
shortfall, not to make it easily accessible to academics. But if you are paid in
yen, you might be tempted.
T.J. Pempel