Introduction and Summary

Fifty years have passed since the end of the Second World War in 1945, and almost 40 years have passed since the 1956 Economic White Paper solemnly declared: ‘No longer are we in the postwar age. We are now facing a new, different situation’. But, as far the basic views of Japanese firms, industries and the economy are concerned, the postwar age has not yet ended, and we still find ourselves insisting strongly and repeating softly that we are no longer in the postwar age. The view of the Japanese economy dominant in the 1950s and 1960s (hereafter referred to as ‘the conventional view of the Japanese economy’ or simply ‘the conventional view’) still implicitly and often explicitly dominates the way Japan is viewed in the 1990s both at home and abroad. The conventional view was not effective in analysing the Japanese economy in the 1950s and 1960s and is even less effective when applied to the present economy. We are no longer in the postwar age. We should put an end to the anachronistic conventional view which was invented for postwar Japan. Now we should begin a new study of the Japanese economy based upon a critical review of the past literature and the conventional view.