Imagine the IRS, the SEC, the Fed, and the U.S. Treasury all rolled into one agency, so that the resulting bureaucracy could do whatever it wanted, reporting to no higher authority. It's the stuff of Orwell in the U.S. but it's reality in Japan - in the form of the Ministry of Finance, Japan's almighty Okurasho.

This book is the first account in English of Japan's Ministry of Finance, the most powerful and the least scrutinized ministry in Japan, obscured until now by its cousin, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Hartcher exposes the Ministry as a network of good old boys who met in the elite Tokyo University Law School, and who've had very little financial or economic training, if any.

What's more, the Ministry has the power to install its own members into key leadership positions throughout Japan's business world, thereby controlling most of the country's largest corporations, banks, and financial institutions. Any manager, investor, or regulator who deals with Japan should read this book.