Plans to Improve Living Standards

Abstract

The Japanese economy grew at high speed throughout its period of industrialization. The growth rate accelerated as the economy developed to produce an annual GNP growth of 3–4 per cent in the early industrialization period of 1870–1913. It rose to 4–5 per cent in the pre-war years of 1913–38, and further increased in the post-1945 years to the phenomenal level of 9–10 per cent. In some years, rates as high as 13–14 per cent were reached, leading some to call this the ‘miracle’ period. There was continuous growth throughout the century and the rate of growth was twice as fast as the average achieved in advanced economies in the West.¹