MITI and the Japanese miracle

Page 94

On March 31, 1925, with Takahashi's backing, the government issued Imperial Ordinance Number 25 establishing a Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and a Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

During late 1924, while the preparations for this event were taking place, Nakai Reisaku, class of 1903 and former chief of the Forestry Bureau, became vice-minister of MAC. Shijo * Takafusa, class of 1904 and Takahashi's main internal ally, remained as chief of the Industrial Affairs Bureau.

^*

Takahashi would have preferred Shijo as vice-minister, but he had no control over internal bureaucratic developments. Then an unusual opportunity developed.

Yoshino was out of the country during the spring and summer of 1924, when the party coalition government came to power. He had been sent to America and Europe to investigate the chemical industry and protective tariff policies. Yoshino was then chief of the Industrial Policy Section in the Industrial Affairs Bureau, having been appointed to that post at the youngest age in the history of MAC by his bureau chief, Shijo. Upon Yoshino's return, Shijo told him that the ministry was to be split. He also told him that Vice-Minister Nakai intended to appoint Yoshino chief of the Silk Section in the Agricultural Affairs Bureau but that Yoshino should turn down the job in order not to be trapped in agricultural administration when the division of personnel between the two new ministries took place.

In December 1924, however, Nakai was suddenly obliged to give up the vice-ministership in order to deal personally with a corruption scandal at the Yawata steel works.

^**

Shijo, next in line in seniority to

^*

Shijo was chief of the Industrial Affairs Bureau of MAC from 1920 to 1924. He came from an aristocratic background. Born in Kyoto as an illegitimate son of the Nijo* clan, he was adopted by Shijo Takahira, who sent him to Todai* Law, where he graduated in 1904. One of his classmates was Yoshino Shinji's illustrious elder brother, Yoshino Sakuzo* (18781933), a Tokyo University professor,

Asahi

journalist, and advocate of democratic government for Japan. After Shijo entered MAC, he became a personal aide to the former Satsuma samurai and Restoration politician, Oura* Kanetake, who was minister of MAC from 1908 to 1911. Oura saw to Shijo's* rapid rise in the bureaucracy, and by the 1920's, Shijo had caught the attention and won the respect of Takahashi Korekiyo.

^**

The incident that led to Nakai's giving up the vice-ministership and "sideslipping" (

yokosuberi

) to the post of chief of the steel works originated in the corruption scandals of 1917 and 1918. When the minister of justice's procurators began to investigate the Yawata operations, the chief of the steel works, who was also a MAC bureaucrat, committed suicide. In order to clean up the mess, a tough Home Ministry official was appointed to replace him, but he was forced to resign a few years later after having antagonized the entire staff and work force. During 1924 MAC decided internally to appoint Sakigawa Saishiro*, then chief of the Mining Bureau, as a replacement. However, Sakigawa had earlier headed the politically sensitive Fukuoka Mine Inspectors Bureau, and in that post he had made enemies of the big coal mine operators in the area. They did not want him back at Yawata, and they appealed to Noda Utaro*, vice-president of the

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