Asia's New Giant: How the Japanese Economy Works

Here is a massive compilation of economics papers on the Japanese economy, from the mid 70s. Studying aspects like the role of taxation, and the banking and finance system. The monetary policies of the Liberal Democrat administrations since World War 2 are closely scrutinised. Keep in mind the context of when the papers were written. Japan had then pioneered decades of breathtaking expansion. Plus, South Korea and Taiwan were still far behind economically. And while Singapore and Hong Kong were already well developed, both were small places. Of the Asian success stories, there was really only one, Japan. Hence the academic fascination reflected in the book. Some chapters also looked well on how MITI supported various industries, especially those which were export driven. Finding that MITI had 4 basic methods - low interest government loans; generous tax allowances; industry-based advisory councils for industry-wide consensus policies; and numerical goals for reducing unit costs. Looking back some 30 years after this book was done, we can arrive at some assessments. The Japanese economy did indeed perform impressively for another 15 years. Then in 1990, it hit a brick wall, and thence there were 15 lost years of stagnation. Today, we see that the policies studied in the book were fine, up to a point. Well suited manufacturing industries. But for an information society, a more innovative approach was needed. Plus, MITI did not get all its decisions correct.