ABSTRACT
The high growth period from the late 1950s to the early 1970s has been conventionally dubbed the ‘economic miracle’, since no one predicted that Japan would rise from the ashes of defeat to become an economic power second only to the United States in gross national product (GNP)—ever, much less in such a short time. Prime Minister Ikeda’s Income Doubling Plan did succeed in doubling average household incomes within a decade as the rate of growth of the GNP reached double digit figures year after year. With the government’s sanction, Japanese people spent their rising incomes on what previously had been considered luxury goods at the same time as they put aside savings at rates that became the envy of other countries. By the early 1970s, according to government opinion polls, 90 per cent of Japanese classified themselves as part of the ‘middle’ classes. Japanese people at many levels took pride in their nation’s economic achievements, which foreigners were heralding in publications with titles like Asia’s New Giant.1
