ABSTRACT
A business and government relationship does not emerge ex nihilo. Its defining boundaries and related mode of operation, rather, is a function of its past and the forces that shape the present. In the case of Japan, their interaction is fettered by the legacies of the domestic economy’s sclerotic institutions and pulled by the logic of global production processes. Now leaving its developmentalist past, the relationship has also taken on new complexities. The voice of business has become much less unified and, in those domains where it is most internationally competitive, a new balance with government has taken place. From the political perspective, reform-minded law-makers have found it expedient to advance their change agenda. But, at the same time, under the cosh of the current economic crisis, Japan descends deeper into debt, making economic reform more painful and consequently less likely that the relationship’s boundaries will be re-inscribed. It is thus that with one foot in the past, Japan’s business and government relationship moves forward.
