As the Dec. 14 Lower House election demonstrated, media analysis of political campaigning typically focuses on personalities and parties. In recent years, official manifests serve as TV talking points as pundits — be they boorish young comedians or serious, sober-minded, gray-haired fellows — debate at length each party's stance on the economy, social welfare, constitutional revision, nuclear power, self-defense or the rural-urban divide.

Invariably, reams of data are presented as insightful analysis, while no reporter wishes to be thought of as being irresponsible for depriving the citizenry of their right to know how many terms the candidate has previously won, or failing to show how they are all striving equally hard to win. But while the media focus on politicians and elected parties address the who, what, where and when of Japanese politics, it can fall short of providing a road map to understanding the "why."

That's because, as any loyal Osakan will tell you, the country's media tend to give the bureaucracy's role in the political process something of a pass. One of the reasons Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) is hated in Tokyo so much is that, among other things, it proposes some fundamental reforms that strike at the heart of the nation's bureaucratic kingdom, and the cozy relations that exist between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito and the bureaucracy.