[Part 2: Conclusion] The Kasumigaseki Legions: Why Elite Bureaucrats are Just Roman Centurions Chasing Tribute
Long ago, when indigenous people in Southeast Asia first encountered white colonizers, it is said they worshipped them as "shining gods." However, one day, the local leaders peeked behind the curtain of this divine facade. They saw that these "gods" had the exact same reproductive organs when they had sex, and excreted the exact same waste when they hid in the bushes to relieve themselves. The leaders realized: "Wait, they are exactly the same as us." In modern Japan, the central government ministries—specifically the Ministry of Education (MEXT) and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW)—are playing the exact role of these "shining gods." When they line up sweet-sounding phrases like "international contribution" and "solving labor shortages," we citizens are easily tricked into the illusion that they are benevolent deities working for the greater good. But peel off that gold plating, and what emerges is not a god,...