The main obstacle in the way of more flexibility has been the Japanese finance ministry.

ECONOMIST: Japanese finance

The Japanese finance ministry certainly knows a thing or two about such matters.

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This is because in recent years the Japanese Finance Ministry has taken to using the most conservative possible methods to calculate growth.

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The Post Office gives the cash to the Finance Ministry, which invests it in Japanese government bonds.

ECONOMIST: Japan

The Japanese public is mightily cross about a Ministry of Finance decision to use tax money to liquidate seven jusen, or mortgage companies, last year.

ECONOMIST: Japanese banks: Rot | The

As one sign that foreign investors are cooling to Japan's markets, the finance ministry reported Thursday a sharp drop in purchases of Japanese stocks by overseas investors.

WSJ: 5.2% Drop Takes Tokyo Stocks Into a Correction

Overall Japanese exports fell the most in six months in July, data from the finance ministry showed last week.

BBC: A worker in a Japanese factory

And despite the fact that, when his book came out, Tokyo was humming with rumours of severe financial troubles at Japanese banks, he argued that these banks, led by the Ministry of Finance, were stronger and more efficient than their American counterparts.

ECONOMIST: How do books about the future stand up to the test of time?

Ministry of Finance officials suggested it reapply in partnership with a group of Japanese firms.

FORBES: Here come the gaijin

Although Mr Koizumi has had close ties to the finance ministry, upon taking office he was initially more concerned with overhauling expenditures, and their effect on Japanese politics, than with the size of the fiscal balance itself.

ECONOMIST: The deficit may be the least of the prime minister's worries