The political economy of the Japanese financial big bang : institutional change in finance and public policymaking / Tetsuro Toya ; Jennifer Amyx, consulting editor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Toya, Tetsurō, 1972-2001.

Contributor:

Amyx, Jennifer Ann.

Standardized Title:

Political economy of the Japanese financial big bang. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Finance--Japan.

Finance.

Financial institutions--Deregulation.

Financial institutions.

Japan.

Financial institutions--Deregulation--Japan.

Japan--Economic policy--1989-.

Economic policy.

Physical Description:

xix, 328 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

In 1996, the Japanese government passed a policy package to initiate massive deregulation and liberalization in the nation's financial sector, referred to as Japan's financial 'Big Bang.' This book argues that the emergence of the Big Bang Initiative poses numerous challenges to conventional interpretations of Japanese politics and represents a clear case of institutional change in Japanese finance. Whereas many observers stress continuity in Japanese politics, this book argues that the emergence in the 1990s of performance failures and scandals attributed to the bureaucracy, as well as the increase in the likelihood of a change in government in this period, led policymaking patterns surrounding the Big Bang to differ radically from those dominating public policymaking in the past. The findings reveal that not only politicians, but also bureaucrats and interest groups, have reasons to pursue public support to enhance their respective political influence. Consequently, well-organized groups do not always prevail over the unorganized public.

Contents:

1 Did Japanese Politics Change in the 1990s? 1

Change or Continuity? 1

Research Puzzles 7

Methodological Approach and Theoretical Framework 10

Argument in Brief 13

Part I Analytical Framework

2 A Rational Actor Approach 23

Three Contentious Issues in Japanese Politics 23

Works on Japanese Financial Politics and the Big Bang 33

The Study's Methodological Approach and Research Design 36

Possible Alternative Explanations 42

3 How do Systems Change?: Actors, Preferences, Strategies, and Institutions in Financial Politics 46

Introduction of conceptual tools for institutional analysis 46

A Theoretical Framework for Institutional Change 51

The Dynamics of Organizational Survival 58

State Actors (1)-Political Parties 60

State Actors (2)-Bureaucratic Agencies 63

Societal Actors (1)-Firms and Interest Groups 68

Societal Actors (2)-The Public 71

Institutions in Japanese Financial Politics (1)-Bureaupluralism in Public Policymaking 75

Institutions in Japanese Financial Politics (2)-The Financial "Convoy" 87

Scenarios of Financial Reform 95

4 Expected Economic Implications of the Big Bang 102

Background to the Big Bang Plan 102

Basic Concepts of the Financial Big Bang Plan: Principles, Pace, and Sequence 118

Concrete Policies Included in the Financial Big Bang 121

Expected Economic Consequences of the Big Bang 128

"Winners" and "Losers" of the Big Bang 132

Part II Analysis of Financial Politics

5 A Political Analysis of the Emergence of the Big Bang Initiative 153

Balancing the Interests of Support Constituents and the General Public 154

Who Brought about the Big Bang? 156

Developments within MOF related to the "Big Bang" 167

Developments within the LDP related to the Big Bang 171

Summary: Who Brought about the Big Bang? 176

Organizational Level Evaluation 177

Integrating the Suborganizational and Organizational Levels of Analysis 182

Assessment against Competing Explanations 183

6 The Financial Industry and the Big Bang 189

Two political paths to economic reform 190

Developments following the Prime Minister's Initiative 191

Summarizing the Narrative 202

Three Previous Cases of Financial Reform 206

Comparing the Financial Big Bang to Past Financial Reforms 212

Why was the Financial Industry Unable to Stop the Big Bang? 214

Conclusion: The Big Bang as a Victory by the "Political Winners" 219

7 New Developments in Bureaupluralism: Comparing and Contrasting the Big Bang to the 1998 "Financial Diet" 220

New Developments in Bureaupluralism emerging out of the Financial Big Bang 221

Comparing and Contrasting the Big Bang with the Fall 1998 "Financial Diet" 224

New Patterns in Financial Policymaking 233

Public Support as a Determinant in Financial Politics 234

Comparison with Alternative Explanations 242

Part III The Meaning of Change

8 Two Institutional Changes 251

Review: Conceptualizing Institutions and Characteristics of Two Key institutions in Japanese Finance 252

What Drives "Institutional Change"? Reexamining the Context of Japanese Financial Politics 255

Relating the Big Bang to Broader Changes in Finance 264

Institutional Change in Finance: Collapse of the Financial Convoy 274

Institutional Change in Public Policymaking: The Decay of Bureaupluralism 276

Insights into Regulatory Reform in Other Contexts 290

Implications for Economic Reforms in Other Policy Areas 291

Policy Implications 304

Further Issues 309.

Notes:

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Stanford University, 2000.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 312-321) and index.

ISBN:

0199292396

OCLC:

61499982

Publisher Number:

9780199292394 (alk. paper)