An interesting piece by Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa of Bloomberg gathers a few facts and some reactions from experts to speculate about a possible major change in the Japanese political structure.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-12/abe-threate
ns-ministries-with-power-shift-rivaling-macarthur-era

The issue is framed as politicians vs bureaucrats though of course it is essentially the kantei vs everybody else. The issue goes back to the beginnings of the 1955 system--as one example, the formal call to bring the Budget Bureau into the Cabinet Office in 1964--and has been high on the agenda since the early 1980s though with many ups and downs.

On the surface at least, Abe right now seems to have more potential power, or faces weaker opposition from any quarter--opposition parties, his own party rivals (individuals, factions, zoku), the ministries, interest groups, public opinion)--than any prime minister in Japanese history. If as suggested here he can get control of ministry personnel systems by appointing administrative vice-ministers himself (at least if he were able to appoint real outsiders rather than from among top officials in the ministry), Japan might become one of the more centralized decision-making systems among advanced democracies.

Many political scientists have hoped that Japan would move toward the "Westminster" model, though many of them probably were not thinking about having Abe at the top. What it would mean for Japan (or for that matter whether it really works so well in the UK) is an interesting question.

John Campbell