At first glance, Osaka seems as prosperous and powerful as ever. But peel away the glitz and you find Japan’s dirty little secret – a legacy of government mismanagement and economic decay. In Kamagasaki, a short drive from the city centre, thousands of unemployed men have gathered in search for work. They came here as labourers for the construction industry, but are now suffering at the hands of the economy. Japan owes 5 trillion US dollars, yet its leaders refuse to change their profligate ways. There are 70,000 bureaucrats working in the Land and Transport Ministry – they control 80% of the public works budget. ”One of the main sources of Japan’s corruption is that the bureaucrats are allowed to profit from the businesses under their control”, observes author Alex Kerr. Successive governments have tried to revive the economy by pouring billions into public works like bridges and tunnels, but most of them are white elephants. ”The bridges are the most expensive concrete per square foot ever in the history of humanity,” says Ken Curtis of Goldman Sachs. If the government fails to treat the concrete cancer, its debt will keep growing.

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