ABSTRACT
The performance of the Japanese economy since the Meiji restoration in 1868 has been quite extraordinary. Japan emerged from the intense isolation imposed by the Tokugawa as an economic backwater, lagging far behind the West. But by the end of the twentieth century, her economy had become the second most powerful in the world. And this was accomplished in spite of the vast devastation that she suffered as a consequence of her defeat in World War II. Although the sustained growth of the Japanese economy from 1868 to 1989 was remarkable by itself, the 18-year period between 1955 and 1973 was especially noteworthy. For over the latter span the average annual growth rate of the Japanese economy measured in terms of real gross national product (GNP) rose to almost 10%. The singular nature of this achievement is captured in the phrase “Japanese economic miracle” which has come to be used to describe the phenomenon.
