MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975

Chalmers Johnson

Published by Stanford University Press 1982

MITI and the Japanese Miracle

The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975

Chalmers Johnson

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804765602

Overview
Contents

About this book

The focus of this book is on the Japanese economic bureaucracy, particularly on the famous Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), as the leading state actor in the economy. Although MITI was not the only important agent affecting the economy, nor was the state as a whole always predominant, I do not want to be overly modest about the importance of this subject. The particular speed, form, and consequences of Japanese economic growth are not intelligible without reference to the contributions of MITI. Collaboration between the state and big business has long been acknowledged as the defining characteristic of the Japanese economic system, but for too long the state's role in this collaboration has been either condemned as overweening or dismissed as merely supportive, without anyone's ever analyzing the matter. The history of MITI is central to the economic and political history of modern Japan. Equally important, however, the methods and achievements of the Japanese economic bureaucracy are central to the continuing debate between advocates of the communist-type command economies and advocates of the Western-type mixed market economies. The fully bureaucratized command economies misallocate resources and stifle initiative; in order to function at all, they must lock up their populations behind iron curtains or other more or less impermeable barriers. The mixed market economies struggle to find ways to intrude politically determined priorities into their market systems without catching a bad case of the "English disease" or being frustrated by the American-type legal sprawl. The Japanese, of course, do not have all the answers. But given the fact that virtually all solutions to any of the critical problems of the late twentieth century—energy supply, environmental protection, technological innovation, and so forth—involve an expansion of official bureaucracy, the particular Japanese priorities and procedures are instructive. At the very least they should forewarn a foreign observer that the Japanese achievements were not won without a price being paid.

Reviews

"Johnson's penetrating institutional analysis—full of sideswipes against cultural explanations—stimulated generations of research into the variations among capitalist systems, in Asia and beyond."—Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs

"There are, unfortunately, few books on Japanese politics and economics that deserve to be widely recommended to nonspecialists from either discipline, let alone to the generally informed public. Happily, Chalmers Johnson's excellent study is one of those rare gems that will demand attention from wide audiences. It is a sparkling addition to scholarship and literacy."—T. J. Pempel, Political Science Quarterly

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
PREFACE Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
TABLES Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
ABBREVIATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
ONE The Japanese "Miracle" Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
TWO The Economic Bureaucracy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
THREE The Rise of Industrial Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
FOUR Economic General Staff Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
FIVE From the Ministry of Munitions to MITI Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
SIX The Institutions of High-Speed Growth Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
SEVEN Administrative Guidance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
EIGHT Internationalization Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
NINE A Japanese Model? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	383

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 412
Keywords: Politics -- Asia; Economics -- Economic Policy; Politics -- International Relations

eBook

Published: June 1, 1982
ISBN: 9780804765602