Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Overthrowing the Past -- Bureaucratic Practices -- Inside the Ministry of Finance -- The Ministry of Finance and the Private Sector -- Management of the Financial Markets -- The Postwar Financial System -- The End of the Postwar Financial System -- Too Close for Comfort: The Securities Bureau and the Securities Industry -- Bailout: The Banking Bureau and the Banking Industry -- The Problem of Informal Relations: The Daiwa Bank Scandal -- Lessons Learned: Secrecy and the Bailout of the Jusen -- Bureaucrats, Politicians and the Budget -- The Budget and the Bureaucracy -- The Political Role of Bureaucrats -- The Bureaucratic Role of Politicians -- The Forms of Political Intervention: Cooperation, Consensus and Conflict -- The National Interest: Politicians, Bureaucrats and the Consumption Tax -- Reform -- The Inevitability of Administrative Reform -- Retribution and Reform -- The Endgame: Transforming the Ministry of Finance -- Notes -- Interviews -- Bibliography -- Index.