Addicted to Ruling

A human being has four desires. They are to eat, sex, sleep and rule. A common nature is that each must be necessary for sustention of an individual. Bureaucrat in Japan is a creature addicted to the fourth desire: ruling. They seek it even with sacrifice of other desires. As a result of the addiction, they become too ugly to be respected. New book written by a bureaucrat in Kasumigaseki, Nuclear Power Plant Whiteout, reveals not only the facts of struggle over resumption of nuclear power generation, but also systematic fault of bureaucracy in Japan.

The book brought a sensation to the public with a description, even in a fiction style, about how “nuclear village” in Japan concentrated power to rule Japan. The author wrote about the details of money stock of power companies, which he calls “monster system.” Actually, electric power supply in Japan has been occupied by ten companies. They can legally add running costs of the company on utility charge for firms and families. Ten power companies pool their surplus for lobbying legislators. Although the existence of such a system has been well known, readers applauded the author’s braveness of the accusation from inside of the bureaucratic community.

However, a far more important thing described in the book is the ecology of bureaucrats including the author. Main characters appear in the story, Vice-chairman of Agency of Natural Resource and Energy, secretary of lobbying bureau and a young bureaucrat in Nuclear Regulation Authority, all believe in their leadership over the Japanese nation. Even the author referred to his status as elite by saying that “top elite does not simply mean the graduates of Tokyo University, but Law Division of Tokyo University.” He is one of the graduates of the division.

Believing that is an only way they can satisfy their existence. Persuaded by parents, they have been studying hard at their days of elementary school. Because of their devotion to study, they have never been attractive for their opposite sex, causing tragically poor description of love affair in the book. In bureaucratic system, expressing their personalities has been oppressed, as seen in their shabby dark gray suits. Needless to say, they are always sleepless with too many orders coming down from the boss. This hardship makes up a narrow-minded and arrogant bureaucrat.

Real world is not so simple as Kasumigaseki, where bureaucrats are living most of their life. A sexy celebrity would be more broadly respected than a power elite. Firm belief about ruling Japan is always threatened by frequent power shift in politics. Supposedly because of its unstable power structure, the warning of the book may become true. It is repeating the disaster we experienced in Fukushima two years ago.