Best newspaper or wire-service interpretation of foreign affairs
Award Year: 1996
Award Name: The Bob Considine Award 1996
Recipient: Michael Williams, David P. Hamilton, Jathon Sapsford, Robert Steiner
Affiliation: The Wall Street Journal
Honored Work: “Unmasking the Mandarins: The Failure of Japan’s Bureaucracy”
In an enterprising investigative portrait of a bureaucracy out of control, the Journal’s reporters show how the “amakudari” system of placing government officials in private-sector jobs helped lead to massive economic collapse in the Japanese banking and real estate industries. At the heart of the crisis was the accumulation of mountains of unpayable debt, including $258 bilion owed by Japan’s National Railway system.
Citations for Excellence:
Anthony Shadid
The Associated Press
“Islam’s Challenge”
Dudley Althaus
Houston Chronicle
“Black Gold, Broken Promises”