MITI and the Japanese miracle

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posed evisceration of the Antimonopoly Law (as we shall see, there was more to this opposition from Osaka than met the eye). When the ministers finally acted, they changed the name of the law to the more innocuous Special Measures Law for the Promotion of Designated Industries, put a five-year limit on it, altered the ways in which industries could be designated, and strengthened the participation of the minister of finance in the law's administration. With these changes the LDP's Political Affairs Research Council (where former Finance Ministry bureaucrats were very strong) signed on over the objections of the Banking Bureau, and on March 22, 1963, the party gave its final approval. On the same day the cabinet formally voted to sponsor the bill, and on March 25 it was introduced in the House of Representatives and referred to the Commerce and Industry Committee.

As expected, the opposition parties denounced the law as a return of bureaucratic control, the press personalized it as a "save MITI" bill, pundits referred to it as the "charge of the Sahashi brigade," and orators droned on about the demise of the "economic constitution." Sahashi spent hours answering questions in the Diet, but his problem was not with the opposition. He soon discovered that the cabinet, the LDP, and even his own minister had quietly decided not to make a fight. The Special Measures Law became known as "sponsorless legislation," meaning that the establishment had abandoned it. The bill was never defeated; it simply never came to a vote. The government introduced it in the 43rd (December 24, 1962, to July 6, 1963), the 44th (October 15 to October 23, 1963), and the 46th (December 23, 1963, to June 26, 1964) sessions of the Diet, but after having done that, LDP party leaders never lifted a finger to bring it to the floor for a vote. Officially MITI explained the law's failure as due to ''misunderstandings, [bureaucratic] sectionalism, and political tricks," and called its demise a "bitter setback."

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But there were many in the ministry who understood what had happened. Opposition from the banking community and the Kansai business community was serious, but more serious was the fact that Sahashi himself had become an issue.

Several incidents had occurred during Sahashi's tenure as director of the Enterprises Bureau to irritate the business community in general and the business community of Osaka in particular, even when Sahashi's policies were proven sound. The best-known incident concerned the Maruzen Oil Company, whose head office is located in Osaka. Founded in 1933, Maruzen was part of the Sanwa Bank's keiretsu (also based in Osaka); it was and is a domestically owned refining and distribution company, but it had a long-term tie-up with Union Oil Company of California, which was a prime supplier of its