Can Japan Change? Is an Administrative Reform in Japan Real?

Throughout the 1990s, Japan muddled through restructuring its economic vitality and social flexibility to cope with an advent of a new era. Represented by the IT Revolution, the new era has changed existing legal frameworks, business practices, and socioeconomic traditions worldwide. Against this backdrop, Japan has embarked, though belatedly, on various reforms, including administrative reform. Can these efforts succeed? Can Japanese bureaucrats change Japan? Or who else will change Japan and what will be an agenda for the newly born Japan? Takeshi Isayama is a former Japanese government official with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). While at MITI, he was responsible for drafting and implementing international trade policy including intellectual property policy serving as the Commissioner of the Japanese Patent Office and the Director-General of several bureaus including the International Trade Policy bureau during the Hashimoto and Obuchi administrations (1995-1999). He graduated from Tokyo University in 1967 with a Bachelor of Law degree and received his MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1971. After graduating from Tokyo University, he joined MITI in 1967.