Industrial Policy (Promoting and Meddling)

Abstract

If you ask foreign rivals what Japan’s most awesome weapon is, you will be told “targeting.” The government and private companies get together, decide on certain projects behind which they throw their full weight, bring new products out in massive quantities and at ridiculously low prices, and then crush the competition. One view of this was expressed by Sir Terence Beckett, Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry. The Japanese, according to him, “adopt a laser beam approach, concentrating on particular targets and virtually obliterating those industries one by one.”¹ To Marvin J. Wolf, it was a “conspiracy” and a “plot to dominate industry worldwide.” ²