Tatsuya Maruyama's paper "Reflecting on Economic Planning Experience" draws on oral histories from former Economic Planning Agency officials to reveal the importance of the Economic Council's consensus-building function and the medium-to-long-term policy consistency checking function across ministries.
Through interviews with officials who were involved in postwar Japan's economic planning, the paper provides insights into how economic planning evolved from directive planning to indicative planning and eventually into policy coordination mechanisms. The research highlights the institutional memory and practical wisdom gained from decades of economic planning experience.
Key insights include:
- The critical role of consensus building among diverse stakeholders
- Importance of inter-ministerial policy coordination
- Evolution of planning methodologies over time
- Lessons learned from successes and failures in economic planning
The oral history approach provides valuable perspectives on how economic planning institutions functioned in practice, offering important lessons for contemporary policy coordination challenges. The paper emphasizes that while formal economic planning has diminished, the need for long-term vision and policy coordination remains essential.