ABSTRACT
Japanese central bureaucrats expect local authorities to faithfully implement their policy preferences. In the flotation of local loans, the central government not only gave local governments permission for loans, but also supplied most of the funds, mainly from the deposits of postal savings and life insurance and annuity premiums of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Effective mayoral leadership was a crucial ingredient in the city’s ability to exercise this option. An unorganised factor: the role of the mass media another key to Inoue’s strategy was a more indirect mode of manipulation — the successful incorporation of the mass media into his efforts. In the implementation of national grant programs, prefectural governments are expected by central ministries to serve as supervisors of municipalities. In practice, Osaka prefecture had given loan permits without exception to national grant-supported projects.
