Japan's Nuclear Crisis The Routes to Responsibility

by Carpenter, Susan

• ISBN13: 9780230354920
• ISBN10: 0230354920
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Investigation of the disaster will pose questions regarding why Daiichi was constructed in an earthquake-prone zone and was still operating despite problems that had been plaguing the reactors since 1989 such as cracks in infrastructure and leaks in radioactivity. This book analyses and explores the impact of Japans 2011 nuclear crisis.

Author Biography

Susan Carpenter is the managing director of International Markets Analysts Limited. She has worked for Japanese business arid government organizations and also served as the Director of the MSc in International Business and Emerging Markets at the University of Edinburgh Business School. Her previous publications include Special Corporations and the Bureaucracy: Why Japan Can't Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and Why Japan Can't Reform: Inside the System (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Table of Contents

Timeline	p. ix
Annual Average Exchange Rates	p. xiv
Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Consequences of the nuclear crisis: agriculture, fisheries	p. 8
Consequences of the nuclear crisis: Fukushima residents	p. 11
Consequences of the nuclear crisis: Fukushima Daiichi workers	p. 12
'Information-sharing' is not a buzz-word in government agencies	p. 14
Institutional reforms postponed	p. 15
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant: an impending disaster	p. 17
Where does the buck stop?	p. 20
The same old story	p. 23
The routes to responsibility	p. 25
Perceptions of Japan Inc.: busting myths	p. 25
Independent Administrative Institutions: In Name Only	p. 28
The push for reforms: the perfect opportunity	p. 31
Reforms according to Koizumi: FILP	p. 35
Reforms according to Koizumi: enthusiastic support from the opposition	p. 36
The privatization of the Japan Highway Corporation: unenthusiastic support from the LDP and the ministries	p. 38
Special Corporations: consequences of amakudari	p. 40
The liquidation of a failed Special Corporation: Government Housing and Loan Guarantee Corporation	p. 41
The image of reform: Urban Development Corporation	p. 42
The image of reform: Japan National Oil Corporation	p. 42
The image of reform: Japan External Trade Organization	p. 43
Manipulation of operations to maintain JETRO	p. 44
The disguise: convincing the Japanese media	p. 46
The disguise: convincing the American media	p. 48
The disguise: convincing Koizumi	p. 48
JETRO's 'core focus': sowing the seeds of the ministry	p. 49
Holding on to a good thing	p. 50
Amakudari in the Ministries' IAIs, Public Corporations, Research Institutes and Affiliated Agencies: the Insidious Side	p. 52
No reforms in sight	p. 54
Manifestations of amakudari: IAI/public corporations	p. 56
Issues arising in research institutes	p. 58
A consequence of amakudari in IAIs: bid-rigging	p. 60
A consequence of amakudari in an IAI: incompetent management of the Social Insurance Agency	p. 61
Scandal and super-amakudari in a government corporation: Japan Post	p. 65
Everything old is new again	p. 69
'Information-Sharing' is Not a Buzz-Word in Japan: Press Clubs Insulate an Insular Political Economy	p. 71
Press clubs: information cartels control the flow of information	p. 72
The whole truth and nothing but the truth	p. 76
Press clubs and Japan Inc.	p. 78
Elements Intrinsic to Japan's Political Economy: Interlocking Interests between an Elite Bureaucracy and Big Business	p. 79
Power struggle between politicians and bureaucrats	p. 81
The origins of the power of the bureaucracy and government links with big business	p. 84
The bureaucracy's power defined	p. 87
Collaboration between the bureaucracy and big business: ministerial guidance and mercantilism (1898-1919)	p. 88
Japan's expansion in East Asia, outward investment and the benefits to big business	p. 89
Recession: the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and industrial rationalization	p. 92
The alliance between MCI and big business: the birth of 'administrative guidance'	p. 94
The Manchurian Incident	p. 95
The Second World War: the intensification of ministerial powers	p. 97
Enduring changes: corporate culture	p. 98
Reverse reforms and Japan Inc.	p. 98
Small shock, big shock: nuclear energy as a national priority	p. 103
Mechanisms to implement guidance	p. 105
The DNA of Japan's Post-war Political System: Ultra-conservative to the Core	p. 108
The '1955 system': the moneymen, Nobusuke Kishi/Kakuei Tanaka (1950-76)	p. 112
Nobusuke Kishi	p. 112
Kakuei Tanaka: the godfather of pork-barrel patronage	p. 114
Shin Kanemaru: post-Tanaka moneyman	p. 117
Right-wing ultra-conservative politics: in the family domain	p. 119
Junichiro Koizumi	p. 119
Shinzo Abe	p. 120
Yasuo Fukuda	p. 123
Taro Aso	p. 124
Yukio Hatoyama	p. 126
Ichiro Ozawa: protégé of Tanaka and Kanemaru	p. 127
The Recruit scandal: interpersonal networks of politicians, bureaucrats and big business	p. 130
The Ministry of Defense scandal: interpersonal networks of politicians, bureaucrats and big business	p. 132
The right-wing ultraconservative mind-set continues Yoshihiko Noda (30 August 2011-)	p. 136
Seiji Maehara	p. 137
Shintaro Ishihara: post-earthquake neo-nationalism	p. 139
Ishihara's ardent admirers: Toru Hashimoto and the Osaka Restoration Group	p. 141
Pork-Barrel Patronage in the Prefectures: the Proliferation of Nuclear Power Plants	p. 143
Pushing nuclear in needy prefectures	p. 147
Fukushima Prefecture	p. 150
Aomori Prefecture	p. 151
Aomori's no. 1 industry: nuclear power	p. 152
The princes of pork-barrel patronage: Kakuei Tanaka and Noboru Takeshita	p. 157
The godfather	p. 157
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant: the art of pork-barrel patronage	p. 159
The town that can't say 'no!'	p. 161
Noboru Takeshita: bringing home the bacon	p. 163
Shimane Nuclear Power Plant: public works perpetuate more public works	p. 165
Ehime Prefecture: the Takeshita connection	p. 165
Kato's connections to MEXT and METI: textbook and MOX	p. 168
Ikata Nuclear Power Plant: money, money, money	p. 169
The price of pork-barrel patronage	p. 170
The power of money	p. 172
The power of the state	p. 175
Japan's Nuclear Crisis: the Routes to Responsibility	p. 180
JOYO and FUGEN: trial and error	p. 182
MONJU: more trials and errors	p. 182
Mihama: still more errors	p. 184
Takahama: more errors but more MOX	p. 185
Tokai-mura	p. 185
The blame game	p. 187
Splitting NISA from METI: the image of reform	p. 190
NISA: the tip of METI's nuclear tail	p. 192
METl's nuclear progeny: IAIs, industrial associations and research institutes	p. 193
The end of the line: IAIs, at the very heart of government	p. 194
METI: the creative ministry: the route to the renewable energy industrial sector	p. 196
Don't blame the bureaucrats, blame the system!	p. 197
The Japan System: Indestructible but Destructive	p. 199
Japan's first 'lost decade'	p. 200
The first 'lost decade': institutional paralysis	p. 201
Japan's second lost decade: institutional paralysis	p. 202
Earthquake-tsunami and nuclear crisis: impact on industrial production	p. 205
Impact on sovereign debt: out-of-sight, out-of-mind	p. 210
Political bickering: impact on rapid recovery	p. 212
Too little too late?	p. 214
Japan Inc. is alive and well	p. 218
Back to basics: a variation on the '1955' theme	p. 219
Notes	p. 223
Select Bibliography	p. 234
Index	p. 236
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