AFP, Tokyo

Japan’s newly empowered Democratic Party said yesterday that it was ready to do battle with the mighty state bureaucrats to reduce their tight grip over the world’s number two economy.
The centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which scored a landslide victory in Sunday’s general election, has made wresting power from civil servants one of its main policy goals.
“The bureaucracy is using politicians now,” DPJ lawmaker Jin Matsubara said on the private TV Asahi network, deploring the practice of politicians rubber-stamping decisions by unelected officials. [Read more]