ELECTION 2009--BATTLE FOR POWER / Bureaucrats wary over po.

ELECTION 2009--BATTLE FOR POWER / Bureaucrats wary over possible power change

Hirohide Hayashi, Yasuhiro Takizawa and Takeshi Kobayashi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Yomiuri

Senior central government bureaucrats are in a quandary--how should they deal with a party that has said they should play a lesser role in drafting policies?

With just over a month to go before a House of Representatives election in which the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan appears to have a realistic chance of taking the reins of government, senior bureaucrats in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district are watching events with interest.

On July 17, Administrative Vice Finance Minister Yasutake Tango, 58, visited the office of a junior DPJ lawmaker in the Diet Building to discuss becoming the top bureaucrat in the Finance Ministry.

The meeting marked the first time the lawmaker had held such a meeting with a senior Finance Ministry official.

In addition, another DPJ lawmaker found on returning from a trip …