ABSTRACT
The 1960s was the era of the Japanese economic miracle. While Japan’s economy recovery had begun in the 1950s, the period of highest postwar economic growth was in the decade that followed. Most Japanese and many Western observers believed it was Japanese hard work and long hours that made the economic miracle possible. In sharp contrast to the low wage strategy of pre-war industrialists and economic policy-makers, democratisation in postwar Japan meant that the demands of farmers and organised labour could not be ignored. Japan benefited in its period of high growth from a stable international system under the United States’ political and economic hegemony. Ministry of International Trade and Industry used its power to direct resources to manufacturing and export industries, and to deny firms and individuals the ability to import foreign goods, especially luxury items such as expensive automobiles, in order to promote similar, if less well made, Japanese products instead.
