Abstract
The Japanese economic miracle is the best known and most dramatic of post-second World War economic success stories. Although lacking natural resources and even cultivatable land to support its 117 million people, Japan has become the world’s second largest economy. In many sectors — such as electronic goods, cars, and shipbuilding — the leading companies in the world are now Japanese. The standard of living in Japan has risen dramatically, and Japanese wages are now well up the league table of advanced industrialised nations.1 In short, Japan has become one of the richest countries in the world within a generation, overcoming the disadvantages and problems of losing a world war en route.
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Notes and References
For a paean of praise for the Japanese achievement, see Ezra Vogel, Japan as Number One, Lessons for America (New York: Harper Colophon, 1982).
An indispensable guide to the evolution of industrial policy in Japan is Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle, The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–75 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982).
A most useful discussion of this question can be found in US Department of Commerce, Japan: The Business-Government Relationship (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1974).
For a discussion of the reasons why, see J. A. Stockwin, Japan; Divided Politics in a Growth Society, 2nd ed (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1982) pp. 163–96.
For a brief description, see Stockwin, Japan pp. 115–36.
This argument is developed fully in Johnson, MITI.
T. J. Pempel and Keiich Tsunekawa, ‘Corporatism without Labour’ in Philippe C. Schmitter and Gerhard Gerhard Lehmbruch (eds), Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation (London and Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979) pp. 231–70.
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© 1985 Graham K. Wilson
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Wilson, G.K. (1985). Japan Inc.?. In: Business and Politics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17936-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17936-7_6
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