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

Japan is the world's richest country in terms of per capita income. Even during a recession the country is in the black. Japan's school system produces a blue-collar work force possessing skills that come only with a college degree in most Western countries. Its pension and health delivery systems are efficient and relatively inexpensive, and its unemployment rate half that of the United States and Germany.