The magnitude of Japan's economic success is enormous. A nation of 120 million people living in crowded islands endowed with few natural resources has become the second largest economy in the world, less than half a century after being defeated and devastated in the Second World War. Japanese wages have increased in money terms from levels comparable with third world countries to levels comparable with the United States. It is true that because of the high cost of living in Japan, real incomes when adjusted to take account of differences in price levels are still significantly higher in the USA. But the constant, almost remorseless economic progress of Japan suggests that in the foreseeable future the Japanese people will enjoy one of the very highest standards of living in the world. Consumers around the world have become accustomed to relying on Japanese corporations for a wide range of goods. Many American or British people drive to and from work in a Japanese car, use a Japanese microwave oven to prepare part of their dinner and spend the evening watching a movie on a Japanese television or VCR. In less than forty years, Japanese goods have passed from being regarded as inferior and unreliable to being regarded as the epitome of quality. As the economy has progressed, Japanese corporations have moved up the hierarchy of industrial sophistication from cheap textiles to supercomputers. As Japanese wealth has increased, Japanese banks have become among the largest in the world. Once-powerful industrial nations such as Britain have been delighted to host Japanese factories hoping that corporations such as Nissan or Toyota will revive industries in which domestic corporations have failed.

The essential challenge posed by Japan to academics and policy advisers is to understand this extraordinary economic success. Understanding the Japanese phenomenon is crucial for foreign policy makers in other countries. Is Japan fundamentally a free market country, albeit an unusually successful one? If it is, Japan's huge balance of payments surpluses, which seemed so threatening to its trading partners in the 1980s, may be cured by its citizens starting to spend their greater wealth more freely on imports. Perhaps, however, there is a distinctive Japanese model of the political economy which, while seeming to have most of the characteristics of a capitalist market economy, is fundamentally a country managed in such a way that its domestic markets will never be truly open to foreign competitors. Leaders of poorer nations must also consider whether the Japanese model of economic development is one that other countries can emulate or was due to certain factors or characteristics that only Japan possesses.

Academic analysts also wish to appropriate the Japanese success story to support their own favorite theory of how countries make economic progress. A number of different approaches, all with some plausibility, have been advanced to explain Japanese success.

The first approach to explaining Japanese success stresses the contribution of Japanese culture. The Japanese worker views his (women are not considered a normal part of the work force) corporation somewhat as a loyal peasant regarded a feudal lord. The worker supplies hard work, diligence, loyalty and obedience demonstrated by willingness to sing with gusto the corporation's anthem; the corporation, acting as the modern equivalent of the feudal lord, provides housing, health care and the promise of lifetime employment. Japanese workers show unusual willingness to defer gratification, accepting a lower standard of living than the country could provide in the cause of long-term Japanese economic success, and saving a very high proportion of their incomes. Workers rarely join unions - only one quarter of the work force is unionized - and if they do, often join a company union which is committed to the success of its corporation.

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Business at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Business and other relevant topics.