Regulating Japan? Regulation Theory versus the Japanese Experience

Abstract

The tensions between the analytical framework provided by regulation theory and the specificities of the Japanese development trajectory are explored in this paper. Superficially at least, the Japanese case would seem to be (regulation-)theoretically intractable, given the country's unique postwar development path and given the apparent inconsistency of its growth pattern with classic notions of (Atlantic) Fordism, As such, the Japanese experience raises questions about conventional treatments of the historical geography of capitalist restructuring within (different readings of) regulation theory. Regulation theory, it is argued, represents an evolving political-economic method, not a rigid transition model. By implication, the idiosyncrasies of the Japanese experience present an opportunity to interrogate and develop regulationist categories. Critically reviewing the recent regulationist literature from and on Japan, the authors argue that the tension between the theory and this ambiguous case can be rendered a creative one.