ABSTRACT
Japan, the third member of the emerging triad, has embarked on a series of structural changes to strengthen its economy. Efforts from the early 1970s to the middle of the 1980s largely concentrated on 'inward-looking' structural change, directed at improving the efficiency of Japanese industry at home and its competitiveness abroad. The transformation of Japanese industry in the post-war period has been a continuous process of response to changes in domestic and international markets. Rapid appreciation of the Japanese currency in the years immediately following the Plaza Accord led to the adoption of drastic cost-reduction measures by Japanese manufacturing firms. Science and research parks in Japan have thus far reflected the needs of the leading edge in manufacturing. In the coming years, industrial and regional development policy makers will have to grapple with how to support the transformation of the more labour-intensive sectors of manufacturing industry, especially in the non-metropolitan regions (NMR).
