ABSTRACT
Success as a nation with defense, growth, and welfare is enviable. Japan merits examination as a ‘proof in principle’ demonstration of the nonutopian character of that outcome. What has worked for Japan may or may not be applicable elsewhere, and may or may not be desirable on other grounds. Yet it surely can suggest some conducive conditions and policy measures for serious consideration. As the Japanese might observe, there is a response to foreign achievement other than determined inattention or mechanistic emulation. It is of course to gain knowledge of foreign accomplishments and to adapt them, modify them, to one’s own national circumstances.
