Industrial Policy in Japan: 70-Year History since World War II

More than 70 years have passed since the end of World War II. In this period, the Japanese government, more specifically the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (1945-1949), the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI, 1949-2001) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI, 2001-present) designed and implemented a number of industrial policies, i.e. micro-level policy interventions to firms, industries and markets. In this article, after dividing the postwar history of the Japanese economy into three phases, I briefly describe the industrial policies implemented in each of these phases.