Japan and the developing countries: Comparative analysis

Japan and the Developing Countries Edited by Kazushi Ohkawa and Gustav Ranis with Larry Meissner

Japan's economic miracle makes it a case study of the greatest interest to economists and policy-makers seeking solutions to contemporary development problems. In this book an international team of economists, from North and South, examines Japan's experience and assesses its relevance - and occasionally its irrelevance for less developed countries today. The comparative studies range across the world, from Brazil and India to South Korea and the Philippines.

Part I takes us back into an assessment of the political and economic conditions from which Japan's economy "took off". Against this background, parts II and III focus respectively on agriculture and industry in Japan in contrast to a number of less developed countries, investigating in articular the implications for success of er ways of handling issues of technology choice and change. The flow of resources between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and the role of financial institutions and policies in development are the subject of part IV. The final section of the book explores the relationship between foreign trade and development.

The book offers food for thought on many of the most critical issues in contemporary development. How does one borrow technology wisely and adapt it appropriately? How important is the role of agriculture in the development process? What should be the contribution of foreign trade and capital, public and private? Despite the changed world economic conditions that less developed countries face today, there is much to be learned from Japan's extraordinary century of growth,