A recent report for the Japanese ministry of education said the country should "avoid school ranking and unhealthy competition".

As of September 2008, Japanese ministries and agencies were seeking an increase in the 2009 budget by 6%.

However, the Japanese ministry of health, labour and welfare would not comment on the issue, apart from saying that there was no precedent.

"By objective standards, it may seem crazy," said a young bureaucrat at a major Japanese ministry who usually does not get home until midnight.

He joined the Japanese ministry of Foreign Affairs during the late 1960s.

But senior officials in Washington forced him to retire the same day after the Japanese foreign ministry expressed outrage at the comment.

In Japanese ministries, ideas are usually developed at the bottom and painstakingly assembled and analyzed as they move to the top.

A Taiwanese congregation meets here as does a Japanese ministry.

So officials of the Japanese ministry directed reporters to Meidi-ya, a major supermarket chain here.

While sake may be better known abroad, shochu has been more popular in Japan since 2003, according to the Japanese ministry of finance.