ABSTRACT
The Japanese economy is basically a market system, and Japanese government does not directly manage economic activity. However, Japan has also been a highly regulated economy in which the state uses a variety of levers to guide the system along perceived lines of national advantage. Japan's regulated financial system helped to generate the domestic savings on which its economic miracle depended and to channel these toward firms with growth and export potential. Because of low access to credit, households have had to save in advance of major outlays for durable goods, as well as for weddings and other ceremonial occasions. Japanese sometimes refer to this collapse of asset prices as the collapse of the bubble economy. Japanese industry is unique in relying on general trading companies. These have few counterparts in the West, although British East India Company is a historical example. Japanese industry is dualistic, to an extent more characteristic of a developing nation than of a developed one.
