ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Japan’s initiatives towards Pretoria and its neighbouring countries, regarding primarily the question of easy accessibility to the ‘strategic natural resources’ in the region and, to a lesser extent, the prospect of opening up a viable market for Japan’s consumer products. It shows that the Japanese State intervenes in substantive matters regarding the operations of domestic industries. The chapter argues that the raison d’etre of the State in adopting such interventionist approach is to orchestrate the dynamics of its economy in such a way as to emphasise its strategic interests. As Chalmers Johnson, Kent Calder and others have shown with regard to Japan, through controls over access to credit, export licenses, foreign exchange, and the allocation of foreign aid, public agencies have been able to systematically fine-tune economic incentives to meet changing strategic goals.
