The Finance Ministry, which once enjoyed the prestige of being the nation's top bureaucratic body but saw its power and influence erode in the late 1990s in a series of scandals, appears to be aligning with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's political initiatives to regain its former status.
The ministry's recent decision to prioritize the fiscal reform policy pursued by the Koizumi Cabinet rather than focusing on measures to spur an economic recovery drew criticism from some.
"A bad Finance Ministry has again made an appearance," Hiromu Nonaka, former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in December in criticizing the ministry's decision to back Koizumi's structural reform initiatives.