ABSTRACT
In the postwar growth period, the Japanese economy benefited from what has been called "a very accommodating labor force." The Japanese economist Kitamura Hiroshi has used more moderate terms—in French, dirigisme, and in English, sponsored or controlled capitalism. Such practices have imparted very special characteristics to Japanese economic behavior. Government decisions in the economic sphere were arrived at through a long and complicated process of consultation, compromise, and consensus between bureaucrats and party faction leaders, between the bureaucracy and business, and among all groups in the Establishment. The modern sector continued to expand as weaker firms were weeded out and the celebrated zaibatsu reached their peak of power. Exploitation of colonies and military ventures on the mainland also added to the number of corporations in the modern sector. Japan's growth economy of the 1960s was characterized by the relatively high proportion of gross national product devoted to fixed capital formation, as compared with other developed nations.
