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A Sampling of Japanese Economic Issues—A Review Article

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

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Abstract

Among the various issues surrounding Japan's economy, three types are prominent in recent literature: issues concerning the magnitude and measurement of Japan's economic growth; issues concerning Japan's economic structure, behavior, and performance; and issues concerning the nature of Japan's relations with the United States. In the second and third categories, many of the issues, directly or indirectly, have to do with the liberalization of the Japanese economy—in either its internal or external sectors. With regard to policy issues, adversary positions are typically adopted. However, they also emerge in discussions of nonpolicy issues, such as those regarding quantification and measurement. The disagreements among the experts provide a useful point of departure for further research and analysis.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1981

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References

1 For example, they provide most of the data used in Kelly, Allen C. and Williamson, Jeffrey G., Lessons from Japanese Development: An Analytical Economic History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974)Google Scholar. This cliometric study attempts to use the data in the context of an analytical framework or model of Meiji development, including “counterfactual” analysis (exploration of how the economy would have behaved under alternative historical conditions). Ohkawa has applauded the model-building effort, but he is not enthusiastic about Kelly and Williamson's interpretation of the results.

2 “A long swing in the rate of growth of national income frequently forms a homogeneous Wilgrowth period. With these long swings we can look at shorter segments of economic history with greater understanding, without having to subscribe to an international law of development, or even to an ascent from lower to ever higher economic stages.” Rosovsky, “The Take-Off Into Sustained Controversy,” Journal of Economic History, June 1965, p. 275.

3 Ohkawa, and Rosovsky, , “Postwar Japanese Growth in Historical Perspective: A Second Look,” in Economic Growth: The Japanese Experience Since the Meiji Era, eds. Klein, Lawrence and Ohkawa, Kazushi (Homewood, Ill.: Richard D. Irwin, 1968), p. 15.Google Scholar

4 See also Ohkawa in association with Shinohara, M., Umemura, M., Ito, M., and Noda, T., The Growth Rate of the Japanese Economy Since 1878 (Tokyo: Kinokuniya, 1957)Google Scholar; Ohkawa, and Rosovsky, , “A Century of Japanese Economic Growth,” in The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan, ed. Lockwood, William W. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965)Google Scholar; and Ohkawa, , Differential Structure and Agriculture: Essays on Dualistic Growth (Tokyo: Kinokuniya, 1972)Google Scholar.

5 Wholly apart from the statistical analysis, the traditional sector is redefined as containing “agriculture and small-scale industry” (p. 215) and again as “essentially agriculturalists, craftsmen, and small entrepreneurs” (p. 229). The role of the traditional sector of manufacturing is also mentioned in the discussion of foreign trade (chap. 8). Moreover, an important ingredient of the authors' “shift” concept (the output-augmenting effect of reallocation of factors of production, especially from traditional to modern sectors) consists in the “movements of workers from smaller to larger enterprises within manufacturing” (p. 110).

6 In their discussion of the quality of capital, Ohkawa and Rosovsky specifically reject the “embodiment” hypothesis, which refers to technical progress and innovation embodied in durable equipment (p. 65, n. 24). Instead, they adopt a “vintage” approach for the adjustment of capital input. In the vintage model of technical progess, the Brookefficiency of machinery is determined at the moment of its construction by the prevailing level of technical knowledge. Their “rejection” of the embodiment hypothesis is apparently mistaken, inasmuch as the vintage model incorporates the concept of embodiment (by implicitly taking account of technical progress embodied in newer capital), while possibly including other elements of progress as well. See Jones, Hywel G., An Introduction to Modern Theories of Economic Growth (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976), chap. 8.Google Scholar

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14 Editorially, it is not unblemished. For example, the footnotes are missing from chap. 5, and the book lacks an index.

15 At present, Japan is in deficit with Australia and Canada, with both of which the U.S. is in surplus.

16 Abegglen, James C. and Hout, Thomas M., “Facing Up to the Trade Gap With Japan,” Foreign Affairs, Fall 1978, p. 150.Google Scholar

17 International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, May 1980.

18 There is unconscious irony here—the winner being reproached by a voice from the land where, in football parlance, “winning is the only thing.”

19 Robert E. Herzstein, address to the Japan Society in New York, Oct. 23, 1980. U.S. Department of Commerce Press Release, Oct. 23, 1980.