When the Democratic Party of Japan won the 2009 election and ousted the Liberal Democratic Party-led government, Shigeaki Koga, a veteran reformist at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, had high hopes that the bureaucracy would finally change for the better.
During the campaign, the DPJ's key pledge had been to run a politician-controlled administration, harshly criticizing the LDP for being manipulated by the bureaucracy and rubber-stamping wasteful spending.
Two years on Koga is "very pessimistic about the situation," because the DPJ appears to have given up on administrative reform and has succumbed to the bureaucrats' control.