Chalmers Johnson - MITI and the Japanese miracle

27

Although they would be unlikely to employ so ideologically loaded a concept and would certainly reject the Marxist implication that as state officials they worked for some propertied "class," the officials of MITI's Enterprises Bureau would have to admit that Endo has accurately described the functions of FILP. From 1953 on FILP has always been from a third to a half the size of the general account budget and has ranged from a low of 3.3 percent (1956) to a high of 6.3 percent (1972) of GNP. Until 1973 it was totally controlled by the economic bureaucrats and was not subject to the scrutiny or approval of the Diet. As Boltho says, it was "the main means of circumventing the rigid balanced-budget principles laid down after the war."

28

During the period that Ichimada and Ikeda were erecting this two-tiered financial structure, MITI was busy putting its own house in order and preparing to lead the operational side of the developmental effort. When MITI came into being in May 1949, it still faced three more years of occupation and five more years of hostility from Prime Minister Yoshida. The most important organ of the ministry in these

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TABLE

15

Sources of Industrial Capital, 19531961

(Hundred million yen)

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

Private financial organs:

Banks only

1,945

1,592

1,767

3,387

3,559

4,125

4,808

6,427

7,053

(49%)

(42%)

(40%)

(49%)

(44%)

(44%)

(42%)

(42%)

(39%)

All other organs

511

969

1,289

1,913

2,351

3,029

4,132

5,849

7,286

(13)

(25)

(29)

(28)

(29)

(32)

(36)

(39)

(40)

SUBTOTAL

2,456

2,531

3,056

5,300

5,910

7,154

8,940

12,276

14,339

(62)

(66)

(69)

(77)

(74)

(76)

(77)

(81)

(80)

Public financial organs:

Japan Development Bank

871

575

464

448

632

589

681

650

862

(22)

(15)

(11)

(7)

(8)

(6)

(6)

(4)

(5)

All other government banks

415

455

559

716

930

1,009

1,338

1,555

1,850

(11)

(12)

(13)

(10)

(12)

(11)

(12)

(10)

(10)