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Ministry of Finance (Japan)

Coordinates: 35°40′23″N 139°44′56″E / 35.673°N 139.749°E / 35.673; 139.749
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This article is about the Ministry of Finance after 1889. For other uses, see Ministry of the Treasury (Ritsuryō).
Ministry of Finance
財務省
Zaimushō

Ministry of Finance building
Agency overview
FormedJune 1, 2001 (2001-06-01)
Preceding agency
  • Ministry of Finance (大蔵省, Ōkura-shō) (until 2001)
JurisdictionGovernment of Japan
Headquarters3-1-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan 〒100-8940
Ministers responsible
Child agency
Websitemof.go.jp

The Ministry of Finance (財務省, Zaimu-shō) is one of the cabinet-level ministries of the Japanese government. The ministry was named the Ōkura-shō (大蔵省) until 2001. The Ministry is headed by the Minister of Finance (財務大臣, Zaimu-daijin), who is a member of the Cabinet and is typically chosen from members of the Diet by the Prime Minister.

Overview

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Ministry of Finance entrance
Bond of Japan, issued 15 May 1910, vignette with Fudschijama

The Ministry originated in the 6th century, when the Ōkura (大蔵) was established as a state treasury in ancient Japan. When a modern system of government was introduced after the Meiji Restoration, the Ministry of Finance (大蔵省, Ōkura-shō) was established as a government body in charge of public finance and monetary affairs. It is said that new ministry employees are subtly reminded that the Ōkura-shō predates by some 1269 years when the new Constitution was imposed on the nation by the U.S. occupation forces in 1947.[1]

The Ministry has long been regarded as the most powerful ministry in the Japanese government. After various financial scandals revealed in the 1990s, however, the Ministry lost its power over banking supervision to a newly established Financial Services Agency. It also lost most of its control over monetary policy to the Bank of Japan when the Diet passed a new Bank of Japan Law in 1998. In addition, it lost its ancient Japanese name when it was renamed the Zaimu-shō (財務省) in January 2001, although its English name remained the same.[2]

In financial markets, the Ministry is famous for its active foreign exchange policy. Its top civil servant on the international side, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, is often quoted in the financial press. Former Vice Minister Eisuke Sakakibara was known as "Mr Yen"[3], whereas his successors Haruhiko Kuroda and Zenbei Mizoguchi were often referred to as "Mr. Asian Currency" and "Mr. Dollar", respectively.

Following the 2024 Japanese general election, criticisms against the ministry skyrocketed, mainly due to the ministry hesitating to pass a proposal by the Democratic Party For the People to reduce the income taxes. The ministry was compared to the Aum Shinrikyo on the internet, with the ministry nicknamed "Zaimu Shinrikyo" on social media platforms.[4]

Organizational structure

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The Customs and Tariff Bureau (Customs flag shown) is one of the divisions of the Ministry.

The Ministry is organized in six bureaus that provide the overall functions of the ministry:[5]

Independent Administrative Institutions

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Six Independent Administrative Institutions are under the Ministry's control:

Incidents

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  • In 1998, four officials at the ministry were arrested and 112 disciplined for accepting bribes in the form of visits to a no-pan shabu-shabu restaurant in Shinjuku.[6]
  • In March 2018 Toshio Akagi, an employee of the ministry's Kinki Local Finance Bureau, committed suicide after being forced to tamper with documents related to the sale of government owned land to school operator Moritomo Gakuen, a transaction defended by the ministry despite the resulting scandal.[7][8] His wife began collecting signatures online for a petition to investigate the truth about Akagi's suicide. As of 2020, she had gathered around 290,000 signatures.[9][10]
  • On May 20, 2022, the deputy vice minister for policy planning and coordination in the Ministry of Finance was arrested for beating and kicking a fellow passenger on a train in Tokyo.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Lamont-Brown, Raymond. "The Ministry: The Inside Story of Japan's Ministry of Finance – a book review", Contemporary Review. August 1998.]
  2. ^ Machidori, S. (2023). Political Reform Reconsidered: The Trajectory of a Transformed Japanese State. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
  3. ^ 日本放送協会 (2024-07-17). "円安 市場介入を指揮 "令和のミスター円"神田財務官に問う | NHK | ビジネス特集". NHKニュース. Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  4. ^ 諒, 西山 (2024-11-23). "財務省への批判がXで急増、リプライは衆院選後15倍以上に 殺到の批判コメントを可視化". 産経新聞：産経ニュース (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-02-16.
  5. ^ "Functions". Ministry of Finance. Retrieved 2017-02-12.
  6. ^ https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/entertainment-at-lurid-shabu-shabu-establishment-got-bankers-bureaucrats-in-hot-water
  7. ^ "Bureaucrat's widow asks PM to look into Moritomo Gakuen scandal that led to her husband's suicide". The Japan Times. 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  8. ^ McNeill, David. "An ultranationalist school, a suicide and a wife on a quest for the truth". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  9. ^ https://www.nnn.co.jp/dainichi/news/200402/20200402022.html [dead link‍]
  10. ^ "森友・文書改ざん 再調査求める署名30万人突破へ 電通過労自殺の遺族も賛同" [Morimoto document forgery - More than 30000 signatories demand re-investigation - Relatives of the Dentsu Karoshi case endorse it]. mainichi.jp. 2020-04-16. Archived from the original on 2022-09-27.
  11. ^ "Senior Japan ministry official arrested for alleged assault on train". The Japan Times. 20 May 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.

Further reading

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35°40′23″N 139°44′56″E / 35.673°N 139.749°E / 35.673; 139.749

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