Japanese Economic Miracle Research Articles

An Application of Convergence Theory to Japan's Post-WWII Economic “Miracle”

The author provides an interpretation of the post-World War II economic “miracle” of Japan as a process of economic convergence within the framework of the neoclassical Solow-Swan model of economic growth. He shows how the predictions of the Solow-Swan model are qualitatively consistent with the actual economic record of Japan in the decades following World War II. The article is intended to help in the teaching of economic growth and the Japanese economic miracle, either as part of a macroeconomics course or in an advanced elective course in economic growth and development or in Japan's modern economic history.

Competition and the Development of the Internet in Japan

Academic writers observing the spectacular rise and fall of the Japanese economy since 1945 have attempted to pinpoint the source within the famously opaque Japanese political system that bears the primary responsibility for this economic ascendence and decline. Within the short life-cycle of the Japanese Internet boom of the late 1990's, one can observe a vignette of the broader debate. Chalmers Johnson first identified a tightly controlled economy, "guided" by the Japanese bureaucracy as the source of the Japanese economic miracle. Subsequent writers have argued the opposite, that any credit for the Japanese economic miracle can be attributed to a competitive economy that somehow managed to flourish despite the best efforts of the bureaucracy to suppress it, and futher, that bureaucracy and lack of transparency within the Japanese political system, is primarily responsible for Japan's current economic woes. This paper argues that bureaucratic efforts, mirroring Chalmers Johnson's "developmental state" were partly responsible for Japan lagging far behind its industrial neighbours in economic development associated with the growth of the Internet until 1999. It was only in the latter half of the 1990's, when a concerted effort was mounted to deregulate the telecommunications industry, did the development of the Internet (and the associated economic benefits that flowed therefrom) take off in Japan. Thus, the development of the Internet economy in Japan seems to mirror the arguments of the pro-competition academic writers in the broader debate about the political source of the rise and fall of the Japanese economy. Competition and deregulation helped to spur the development of the Internet in Japan in the latter half of the 1990's. Bureaucracy had inhibited its development until then.

Explaining the Japanese economic miracle

This paper argues that, contrary to popular opinion, the Japanese economy was not, by western notions and standards, highly efficient during the period in which the so-called economic miracle took place. Rather, the rapid economic growth of that period, which actually occurred in the face of substantial inefficiencies, was made possible in part by significant offsetting effects.

Communing with Disaster: What We Can Learn from the Jusen and the Savings and Loan Crises

Now that the Japanese economic miracle has soured into the Japanese economic meltdown, scholars are confronted with a new challenge: instead of trying to penetrate the secret of Japan’s successes, they must try to unravel the enigma of its misfortunes. Professors Curtis Milhaupt and Geoffrey Miller (1997) have performed a great service in documenting one of the most dramatic of those misfortunes – the collapse of the jusen companies. Professor Shinsaku Iwahara (1997) has also performed an equally valuable service by placing this event in the larger context of Japanese politics and society. But despite its record setting scale, the jusen problem was not unprecedented; Japan merely followed in the footsteps of its economic mentor, the United States, which experienced a very similar financial meltdown about a decade earlier. This commentary briefly describes that event – the U.S. savings and loan crisis – and then draws some tentative conclusions on the basis of a comparison of the two events.

The United States Technical Assistance Programme in Japan, 1955–62

In the seven years after 1955, the American government provided Japan with a substantial amount of technical assistance. This article examines the origins of the US programme, describes its scope and assesses what it actually achieved on the ground in Japan. The conclusion offered is that, though a few American prescriptions were certainly rejected, the programme as a whole had a profound impact on Japanese practices, particularly in relation to the vital question of industrial engineering. Indeed, it would appear that an understanding of the Japanese economic miracle is incomplete unless it takes this fact fully into account.

Japan, the System That Soured: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Japan, the System That Soured: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Japan--the system that soured: the rise and fall of the Japanese economic miracle

After seven long years of economic malaise, it is clear that something has gone awry in Japan. Unless Japan undertakes sweeping reform, official forecasts now warn, growth will steadily dwindle. How could the world's most acclaimed economic miracle have stumbled so badly? As this important book explains, the root of the problem is that Japan is still mired in the structures, policies, and mental habits of the 1950s-1960s. Four decades ago while in the phase of its economic evolution, policies that gave rise to Japan, Inc. made a lot of sense. By the 1970s and 1980s, when Japan had become a more mature economy, catch-up economics had become passe, even counterproductive. Even worse, in response to the oil shocks, Japan increasingly used its industrial policy tools. not to promote winners, but to shield losers from competition at home and abroad. Japan's well-known aversion to imports is part and parcel of this politically understandable, but economically self-defeating, pattern. The end result is a deformed dual economy unique in the industrial world. Now this dualism is sapping the strength of the entire economy. The protection of the weak is driving Japan's most inefficient companies to invest offshore instead of at home. Without sweeping reform, real recovery will prove elusive. The challenging thesis articulated in this book is receiving widespread media attention in the United States and Japan and is sure to provoke continuing debate and controversy.

Japan: The System That Soured: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Japan: The System That Soured: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Gendering Work: Deconstructing the Narrative of the Japanese Economic Miracle

The story of the Japanese system, held up as a model for economic prosperity and growth, underplays the role of non-standard labour in the narrative of `success'. Our analysis deconstructs the narrative of the Japanese economic miracle to shed light on this almost invisible pillar by tracing the historical development of non-standard employment among women. We find that this form of work constitutes a larger and faster growing share of total employment than heretofore realised, and that women account for most of the change. Rather than merely a residual dimension of Japanese employment practices, the evidence indicates that non-standard employment represents a key component of work transformation and underscores the salience of gender in the process of Japan's restructuring. We identify three institutional domains which help to explain this gendered pattern of labour market experiences in Japan: the labour market, the family, and the state. These institutional legacies set conditions for the development of the Japanese employment system which favours men as full-time wage earners and women as part-time wage workers and full-time care-givers.

Gendering Work: Deconstructing the Narrative of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Gendering Work: Deconstructing the Narrative of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Japan: The System That Soured: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Japan: The System That Soured: The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Americansogo shosha:American trading companies in the twenty‐first century

Japanese General Trading Companies orsogo shoshashave been instrumental in the phenomenal Japanese economic miracle of the last 40 years. In 1982, the USA passed the Export Trading Company Act to home grow its ownsogo shoshas; to date the Act has been ineffective ‐ yet the need remains. Examines what trading companies are and what functions they perform. Observes the steps that need to be taken to make them profitable and successful. Postulates that trading companies are an integral part of this country’s future.

Developing foresight: an interview with Sir Dai Rees. Interview by Richard Smith.

One of the centrepieces of the British government's strategy for science is a process called technology foresight. Sir Dai Rees, chief executive of the MRC, is a member of the steering group charged with developing foresight. Richard Smith asked him about the subject. RS: What is technology foresight? DR: It's an attempt to consider possible future relations between science and technology and the needs of society and industry. So, for example, in health we know that we will have an aging population and we fear the development of more microorganisms resistant to antibiotics. These are challenges both for health care services and for industry. We look at issues like that alongside information on how science is likely to develop and see whether science might help us with the problems. We can then plan our research activities to make it more likely that we will get the outcomes we want. The government is interested because this may be a way of improving the industrial competitiveness of Britain. RS: Where did the idea come from? DR: It has a Japanese origin. The whole world looks at the Japanese economic miracle with envy and asks how they did it. There are many examples of them seeing before others what to do with science - for example, with liquid crystal displays, which were discovered in Britain. And technology foresight seems to have been one of the things that allowed the Japanese to be so prescient and forward looking. The Dutch and the Germans followed, but in the Thatcher years Britain was not interested. She believed that it was no job of government to try to pick winners in science and technology. While we agree we should not pick winners, we do now believe that it makes sense for those who follow social and market …

Japan – Myth, Miracle or Menace?

Discusses aspects of the Japanese economic miracle, where industry and business are seen as superior in quality. Argues, briefly, that Westerners fail to understand Japanese business behaviour because they do not realize that the Japanese are not constrained by Western concepts, but are bound by a different culture. Argues for an intelligent recognition of the economic war between Japanese and Western companies – and a change of tactics from the Westerners.

The Soviet Union in Transition (The Question is Open to Discussion)

The fate of a country like the Soviet Union concerns not only its leaders and its population. Whatever happens to the Soviet system, the directions which that nation follows will affect the whole world. Therefore, an understanding of the Soviet regime, its limitations and potentials, and the options available to that country, would give the rest of the world the intellectual weapon necessary to meet challenges presented by Soviet development. The stakes may be very high; if the full productive capacity of the Soviet Union were developed, the Japanese economic miracle and the serious problems it has created for the United States might fade into relative insignificance.

Trends in industrial policy: the ongoing debate

Le Canada et la Nouvelle Division Internationale du Travail/Canada and the New International Division of Labour. Edited by DUNCAN CAMKRON Canada Can Compete! Strategic Management of the Canadian Industrial Portfolio. By JOSEPH R. D'CRUZ and JAMES D. FLECK MITI and the Japanese Economic Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975. By CHALMERS JOHNSON The Industrial Policy Debate. Edited by CHALMERS JOHNSON Trade, Industrial Policy, and Canadian Manufacturing. By RJCHARD O. HARMS Trade, Industrial Policy, and International Competition. By RICHARD C. HARRIS. Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada. 1985. Pp. xvii, 167. $14.95 (paper).

The Industrial Destructuring of the Japanese Aluminum Industry

THE JAPANESE ALUMINUM INDUSTRY is in serious trouble. Its accelerating deterioration, and the resulting reordering of the industry throughout the Pacific basin, have been underway for nearly a decade. Curiously, this has received scant attention in Western media awash with accounts of the Japanese economic miracle. Unctuous eastward bows toward Japanese production methods, social organization, and industrial policy too often block the commonsensical recognition that the Japanese-like any others-can pick losers, suffer from significant failures of coordination, and fall prey to forces beyond their control. Indeed, the vaunted reputation of Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) is built in part upon its ability to direct impartially the elimination of failing industries. The case of the aluminum industry has proved an excellent test of both MITI's wisdom and power. In this brief article, I shall discuss the source of the crisis in the Japanese aluminum industry, identify the actors and institutions mobilized to cope with that crisis, and outline both the strategic and tactical responses that have been fashioned through the politics of the publicpolicy process. It is not difficult to understand why Japanese aluminum smelters are in such serious financial straits. In spite of the fact that they are the world's most efficient producers of ingots (as measured in kilowatt hours per ton produced), their electric power costs are, by far, the highest in the world. Bayer-Hall smelting technology, the world's commercial standard, makes the primary production of aluminum among the most electricity-intensive industrial processes. Japanese process innovation and production efficiencies are more than offset by Japan's most oft-

Japan—land of the economic miracle

Until the recent oil crisis the Japanese economy was continuing to boom at an unprecedented rate, and there was plenty of tangible evidence that a high and prolonged rate of growth would be maintained. At the time of writing it is too early to predict what is the probable impact of a potential oil shortage. Meanwhile, it is instructive to analyse the factors contributing to the Japanese economic miracle.

Chapter 2 The End of the Japanese Economic Miracle

Chapter 2 The End of the Japanese Economic Miracle