• 1. Introduction ; 2. The Origins of the Fiscal Crisis ; PART I: THE CONTEXT OF JAPANESE BUDGETING ; 3. The Politico-Economic Context ; 4. Administrative Reform ; 5. Politicians and Bureaucrats in the Policy-making Processes ; PART II: INSTITUTIONS, STRUCTURES AND ACTORS ; 6. The Spending Ministries and Agencies ; 7. Ministerial Autonomy and Territorial Boundaries: Co-ordination, Competition and Conflict in the Policy-making Processes ; 8. The Ministry of Finance ; 9. MOF's Elite Administrators ; 10. The LDP's Policy-making Structures ; 11. Budget Institutions and Structures ; 12. The 'Second Budget': The Fiscal Investment Loan Programme ; PART III: INTERACTIONS ; 13. Budget Objectives and Policies ; 14. Economic Forecasts and Fiscal Projections ; 15. Budget Strategy, Guidelines and Ceilings ; 16. The Budget Processes in the Spending Ministries ; 17. The Budget Bureau's Hearings, Examination and Negotiations ; 18. Rules-of-the-Game: Managing Relations with the Spending Ministries ; 19. Making the FILP Budget ; 20. The Role and Influence of the LDP in the Budgetary Processes ; PART IV: THE OUTPUTS OF THE BUDGETARY PROCESSES ; 21. Who Wins, Who Loses? ; 22. Cuts and Squeezes in the Bureaucracy ; 23. A 'Public Works State' ; 24. Winning and Losing in the FILP Budget ; PART V: EFFECTS AND EFFECTIVENESS ; 25. Fiscal Reconstruction: 'Smoke and Mirrors' ; 26. Deficits and Debts ; 27. Japan's Fiscal Performance in an International Context ; 28. FILP Under Stress ; 29. Coping with Fiscal Stress ; 30. Budget Institutions, Deficits and Debts

... represents a major advance both in understanding of Japan's postwar economic history and in the potential for comparative analysis of the rise and (apparent?) fall of one of the world's most significant economic institutions.