ABSTRACT
Japan's modernization, which began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, took place under the traditional emperor system, guided by a bureaucracy that formulated and implemented policies designed to "enrich the country and strengthen the army." Under the new Constitution, a more thorough form of parliamentary democracy was adopted; it was then that the Diet was specified as the highest organ of government. The primary influence of the Diet over the executive branch lies in its power to appoint the prime minister, the distinctive characteristic of a parliamentary cabinet system. The chapter analyses through the deliberations in the Diet in three parts: the process of drafting the Ministry of Finance budget proposal, the process of drafting the government budget proposal, and the process of Diet review and approval. The unproductive struggles between the Diet and the ministries, as seen in the classic example of the Budget Committee, present one of the greatest problems for efforts to reform the government.
