ABSTRACT
The rise of Japan was dramatic. As late as the 1960s, Japan still had the status of a developing country. The Japanese pharmaceutical market, with a population base rising past 100 million, has for many years been the second biggest in the world, and even its weak progress since 1990 still leaves it in second position for the moment at least. The Japanese pharmaceutical industry was very productive in the sheer number of new products launched. The Japanese pharmaceutical industry came late to embrace globalization. The Japanese pharmaceutical industry has never been a top industry in its home country. It was handicapped because most new products developed for the domestic market offered little or no advance over what was already available in the West. Japanese companies were able to trade profitably on the basis of the local market and were often not ambitious about expanding outside Japan.
