ABSTRACT
As president Kennedy already knew, success has many fathers and failure few. By almost any economic standard, the post-war economic development of Japan can be characterized as a success. Very few industrialized countries boast a similar persistent combination of low unemployment, low inflation and high economic growth. Not surprisingly, this success has become the main topic of many studies in economics, and in other disciplines, such as political science and sociology as well. Various theoretical schools try to lay claim to the success by declaring it to be in accordance with their own ideological beliefs, analytical exercises and resulting conclusions. Consequently, the field of Japanese economic studies has become a battleground of academic conflicts, characterized by significant polarization and politicization. Despite the multi-faceted changes in Japan's political-economic system over the past twenty years, it is surprising to observe the strong continuity of these conflicts: a mixture of ongoing interdisciplinary debates and arguments, in which change and continuity are not always distinguished as such.
