Since Abe won power he’s taken the lower house, the upper house and got his man in as head of the BOJ. He’s now targeting the ministries top positions to open the door to a more centralised approach to policy and more importantly the purse strings.
Japan’s civil service holds the keys to Japan’s budget, approximately $960bn. The problem is that the senior civil servants are a tough bunch and are often the difference between policy being put through or rejected. The nature of their appointments, which again are mainly done through seniority, is what Abe is looking to change.
If he can get senior positions under his wing it’s another string in his bow to enable him to enact real change to Japanese politics. It won’t be an easy job though and it’s one that has failed on three previous occasions. The most recent of which brought down Yoshihiko Noda and led to the elections that saw Abe come to power.
Abe has been filling prominent positions from the BOJ to head of Japan’s Post holdings company to the health and welfare ministry to the coast guard and continues to work on these senior bureaucratic positions.
Given the history of trying to take on these senior ministers he is facing a tough task, but it should help to re-enforce belief that Abe is very serious about turning Japan around and is going hell for leather to do so. After the BOJ and upper house wins the market was already starting to ask, “what next?” for Abenomics and we know how the markets have a lack of patience.
In my mind this move is more important than the sales tax issue as this is one for the long term picture of Japan’s political and economic recovery. The Abe train shows no signs of slowing down and that in itself is very bullish.
