ABSTRACT
The economic bodies which actually attained the high economic growth are, of course, individual enterprises. The term "excessive competition" secured immediate acceptance throughout the Japan as an expression of the state of affairs. Thus, because the Japanese economy grew at a rapid rate it provoked "excessive competition" among enterprises, and the "high economic growth rate" and "excessive competition," being, as it were, the two sides of a coin, have been the driving force of the post-war economy with "excessive competition" acting as the driving force for the attainment of the high growth rate. From the point of view of the relations between various enterprises this economic situation has tended to strengthen large-scale enterprises. In the post-war Japanese economy, however, investment plans have been drawn up with the intention of blocking, as far as possible, the general effects produced by "external economies" and of confining such effects within the bounds of one's own keiretsu.
