ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers insights into the structures of implementation of Japan’s international economic strategy. Japan’s economic performance in the postwar era has commonly been described as miraculous. The book explores the structure and respective purposes of institutions at the intermediate levels of coordination-by-direct-instruction in the Japanese system: neo-zaibatsu, industrial associations, and cartels. A consensus has begun to take shape among students of government and of commercial institutions—namely political scientists and scholars associated with business schools—that although Japan enjoys a vigorous private commerce, at the same time the Japanese government is somehow a participant in Japan’s techno-industrial system. Conceptual insights into Japanese techno-industrial practices can be achieved by analogy to academic, ecclesiastic, diplomatic, and other public institutions in the West. The book sets out the objectives of the international strategy and explores Japan’s strategic economic activity abroad.
