The Promotion And Regulation Of Industry In Japan

The international projection of Japan's corporate and technological power is transforming world manufacturing and the international political economy. Debate rages about Japan's economic success and the role of the state in nurturing it. The Japanese background to these debates is widely misunderstood and are analysed in research-based chapters by British and Japanese specialists on government-industry relations. Japanese policies for industrial promotion, regulation and decline are set in a context of comparative political economy. Sectors include pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding and telecommunications in the US and Japan.

Since 1999, the Japanese government has introduced a number of measures designed to promote regulatory reform, competition policy and market openness. This publication assesses the progress made, identifies some of the lessons that can be learned about the implementation process and indicates what more can be done in light of current challenges.

As Japan moves from a "catch-up" strategy to a post-developmental stage, it is changing its actions and reactions both in terms of international political economy and domestic policy issues. The current changes in Japan can best be understood as following a path toward "permeable insulation." Japan's government and economic system continue to insulate domestic businesses from full competition and the rigor of market forces, but this insulation is also permeable because a decline in state power vis-a-vis the private sector since the 1990s has combined with a decline in the solidarity of private institutions (such as keiretsu or trade associations) to make strategies of insulation much less rigid and uniform. As a result of the "permeable insulation," Japan's response to the global and domestic challenges of the 1990s is neither one of full acceptance nor rejection of global standards and practices. Instead, the basic scheme is one of pragmatic utilization of new rules and circumstances to continue industrial policies of promotion or protection in a new post-developmental era. By bringing together in-depth case studies of eight critical issue areas, this book looks at Japan's responses to globalization and move toward "permeable insulation." Part 1 introduces the reader to the concept of "permeable insulation" and provides a detailed review of past practices and changes in policy. Part 2 deals with international trade issues, Japan's compliance with and resistance to global trade rules, and the domestic interests visible in Japan's compliance. Part 3 focuses on domestic measures and policies that Japanese firms have used to adapt to the changes, within Japan and abroad, triggered by globalization and liberalization.

Originally published in 1986, after a period of global changes and financial crisis in the majority of industrialised countries, this book explores how Japan’s economy seemed to maintain its success. This study provides an overview of the Japanese case and the main schools of thought that arose from it by dealing with export-related issues such as reforms in foreign exchange and trade control laws and the internationalisation of Japan’s financial markets as well as more domestic issues such as employment and wages. This title will be of interest to students of Asian Studies and Economics.

Deregulation has been at the top of Japan's economic policy agenda for many years. Now, in the midst of a financial crisis that engulfs all of Asia, pressures on the Japanese government for substantial reform--coming from both inside and outside forces--are stronger than ever. But is Japan actually making the changes necessary to reduce market controls, encourage competition, and create new opportunities for imports? To most outside observers, regulatory reform in Japan is an incomprehensible blur of grandiose proposals and byzantine political maneuvering, which masks developments that could be of tremendous significance to the world at large. In this book, experts from the United States and Japan cut through the fog that surrounds Japanese regulatory reform. They review the characteristics of Japanese regulation and analyze the content of regulatory reforms proposed to date as well as the political dynamics that shaped them. The book also examines the nuts-and-bolts issues of reforms in major economic sectors and the implications of deregulation for access to Japanese markets for foreign imports. By focusing on both the larger political, economic, and strategic contexts and on the way in which the micro and macro aspects of regulatory reform are interconnected, this volume makes comprehensible the tidal wave of proposals and posturing coming out of Japan. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Miyajima Hideaki, Elizabeth Norville, Kosuke Oyama, and Yul Sohn. Lonny E. Carlile is an assistant professor of Japanese Studies in the Center for Japanese Studies/Department of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Mark C. Tilton is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University.

This open access book provides an in-depth examination of Japan's policy responses to the economic challenges of the 1980s and '90s. While MITI's earlier role in promoting rapid growth has been addressed in other studies, this volume, based on official records and exhaustive interviews, is the first to examine the aftermath of rapid growth and the evolution of MITI's interpretation of the economy's changing needs. Covering such topics as the oil shocks, trade conflict with the United States, and the rise and collapse of the so-called bubble economy, it presents a detailed analysis and evaluation of how these challenges were interpreted by government officials, the kinds of policies that were enacted, the extent to which policy aims were realized, and lessons for the longer term. This book is recommended especially to officials of countries concerned about the challenges that follow on high economic growth and to readers interested in Japan’s contemporary economic history.