Government Relations with Industry: Japan & Britain: A Review of Two Political Arguments

Abstract

This article examines two of the more prevalent contentions relating to Japanese and British government/industry relations. One set of arguments concerns the special nature of the business/party/bureaucracy interlinkage in Japan; the second refers to the structure of the two countries' bureaucracies. The implication of both contentions has been that Britain suffers from lack of the Japanese "special relationship" between industry and government and lack of a strong bureaucracy. Professor Hills argues that the closeness of the relationship between industry and government in Japan has been overstated and ignores changes both in the structure of the Japanese economy and in the political system. She concludes that the differences in the relative understanding of industry within the two bureaucracies and, as evidenced by differing policies toward industry, the speed with which industrial problems are solved, may relate to differing bureaucratic structures and attitudes and to informal procedures of consultation.