Institutional Capacity and Social Capability: Japan’s ‘Deviant’ Capitalism in the High-growth Period and Beyond

W. R. Garside

Chapter 4 in Institutions and Market Economies, 2007, pp 65-86 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract It is a commonplace of the post-1945 period that Japan, wrought by wartime defeat, transformed itself in a relatively short period of time into a dominant player on the world’s economic stage. The central role of government in strategic planning, ‘picking winners’ in sectors or firms, orchestrating cartels and protecting or subsidizing industry stood in stark contrast to the practice of more mature industrialized nations such as Great Britain. In Japan, the government protected sunrise industries in their infancy through quotas and high tariffs. Firms were encouraged to compete and to adapt foreign technology in order to spur increased production and returns to scale, thereby lowering production costs. The Japanese state was far more embedded within the political economy of the nation (Evans, 1995). It provided distinctive coordinating mechanisms that produced ‘constellations of power and interest’ (Beeson, 2002:19) which for many years were regarded as fundamental to the country’s economic success.

Keywords: Industrial Policy; Developmental State; Japanese Government; Institutional Capacity; Allocative Efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-38994-6_4

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230389946_4

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