A major addition to the literature on modern Japanese development, emphasizing the role of ideas and ideology.

Over the postwar period, the scope of industrial policy has expanded markedly. Governments in virtually all advanced industrial countries have extended the visible hand of the state in assisting specific industries or individual companies. Although greater government involvement in some countries has lessened the dislocations brought about by slower growth rates, industrial policy has also caused or exacerbated a number of other problems, including distortions in the allocation of capital and labor and trade conflicts that undermine the postwar system of free trade. Only Japan is widely cited as an unambiguous success story. The effectiveness of its industrial policy is revealed in the successful emergence of one government-targeted industry after another as world-class competitors: for example, steel, automobiles, and semiconductors. Foreign countries fear that a number of still-developing industries—like biotechnology, telecommunications, and information processing—will follow the same pattern. But is industrial policy the main reason for Japan's economic achievements? The author asserts that the reasons for Japan's spectacular track record go well beyond the realm of industrial policy into broad areas of the political economy as a whole. In this book, the author attempts to identify the reasons for the comparative effectiveness of Japanese industrial policy for high technology by answering the following questions: What is the attitude of Japanese leaders toward state intervention in the marketplace? What is the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) doing to promote the development of high technology? How has the organization of the private sector contributed to MITI's capacity to intervene effectively? What elements in Japan's political system help insulate industrial policymaking from the demands of interest-group politics?

What has been the role of goverment industrial policy, through agencies such as MITI, in Japan's extraordinary post-war development? How has the role changed in successive phases of growth? What `lessons' can be learned from this experience by other nations, be they in the West, or developing countries or economies in transition attempting to introduce competitive market structures? These are some of the main questions addressed in this absorbing and thorough study. Dividing the period into three main phases, the author shows that policy played a crucial role in the initial period of post-war recovery. It did so not by `picking winners' but by creating a stable base from which development could occur by spreading the cost of introducing market competition over time. In the succeeding high growth period and more recently Japan's industrial policy attempts only to promote the development of new technology and smooth the decline of sectors that are no longer globally competitive. That Japan itself no longer practises industrial policy on a wide scale is an irony little appreciated by those advocating the adoption of a `Japan style' industrial policy elsewhere.

Intro -- Preface To The Third Edition -- I The Japanese Industrial System -- Chapter 1. Japan And The New Global Economy -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Japan As Industrial Superpower -- 1.3 Paradoxes Of Asian Growth -- 1.4 Japan As Learner And Teacher -- 1.5 From Follower To Leader -- 1.6 Strategies For The 21St Century -- 1.7 Summary And Conclusions -- Chapter 2. Samurai Management: A Framework For Analysis -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Japanese Society: Adversity Management -- 2.3 Hardware And Software As Core Concepts -- 2.4 Japanese Hardware: A Comparative Perspective -- 2.5 Organizational Software Systems -- 2.6 Summary And Conclusions -- Ii Japan'S Societal Policies -- Chapter 3. Japan Inc.: Business-Government Relations -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 The Social Origins Of Business-Government -- 3.3 The Structure Of Modern Government -- 3.4 Government And Big Business -- 3.5 Summary And Conclusions -- Chapter 4. The Visible Hand: Industrial Planning -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Origins Of Industrial Planning -- 4.3 Japan'S Five Year Plan -- 4.4 Industrial Structure Goals -- 4.5 Resource Dependence Planning -- 4.6 Portfolio Approach To Sectors -- 4.7 Japan'S Export Strategy -- 4.8 Japan'S Sunset Industries -- 4.9 Summary And Conclusions -- Chapter 5. Technology And The Knowledge Economy -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Technology And The Economy -- 5.3 The Organization Of Science In Japan -- 5.4 Formulating Science Policy -- 5.5 Technological Diffusion -- 5.6 Creative Technology Policies -- 5.7 Technology Policy In Comparative Perspective -- 5.8 Summary And Conclusions -- Chapter 6. Asian Wall Street: Japanese Banking And Finance -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Financial Policy And Economic Development -- 6.3 Japan'S Banking System: An Overview -- 6.4 From Competition Within Japan -- 6.5 ... To Tomorrow, The World -- 6.6 Summary And Conclusions.

The Japanese economy, after decades of seemingly unsurpassable competitiveness, experienced a major crisis in the 1990s. Observers of Japan are faced with a challenging question: How can one explain Japan's reversal from stunning prosperity to dismal stagnation? Bai Gao, in this illuminating, comprehensive analysis of Japan's economic story goes beyond other analyses to demonstrate how the same economic institutions could produce both stunning economic success and the slump of the 1990s. By comparing the factors that sustained miracle growth in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s with the factors that led to the bubble economy of the late 1980s, Gao sheds new light on internal tensions in the Japanese economic system and how, finally, they 'burst the bubble' in the 1990s. Those who have been following the lively debate over 'What Became of the Japanese Miracle?' will be rewarded by Gao's richly detailed, historically informed, and multilayered contribution.

Provides a theoretical analysis of Japanese industrial policies, and their effect on economic welfare, taking into account their distinctive features. The book explores the problems facing developing countries, particularly newly industrializing nations, which adopt Japan's strategies.

Japanese industry is the envy of the world for its efficient and humane management practices. Yet, as William Tsutsui argues, the origins and implications of "Japanese-style management" are poorly understood. Contrary to widespread belief, Japan's acclaimed strategies are not particularly novel or even especially Japanese. Tsutsui traces the roots of these practices to Scientific Management, or Taylorism, an American concept that arrived in Japan at the turn of the century. During subsequent decades, this imported model was embraced--and ultimately transformed--in Japan's industrial workshops. Imitation gave rise to innovation as Japanese managers sought a "revised" Taylorism that combined mechanistic efficiency with respect for the humanity of labor. Tsutsui's groundbreaking study charts Taylorism's Japanese incarnation, from the "efficiency movement" of the 1920s, through Depression-era "rationalization" and wartime mobilization, up to postwar "productivity" drives and quality-control campaigns. Taylorism became more than a management tool; its spread beyond the factory was a potent intellectual template in debates over economic growth, social policy, and political authority in modern Japan. Tsutsui's historical and comparative perspectives reveal the centrality of Japanese Taylorism to ongoing discussions of Japan's government-industry relations and the evolution of Fordist mass production. He compels us to rethink what implications Japanese-style management has for Western industries, as well as the future of Japan itself.