White collar and blue collar workers pass by financial indicators (Photo: Christopher Jue)

(Writer: Chris Gould)

Motor cars and motorbikes became more advanced, and ambitious leaders such as Soichiro Honda took to their factory shop floors to announce that one day, their seemingly small company would become an international player. With government help, Honda’s vision came true. Careful management of the yen coupled with vicious protectionism prepared Japan for an all-out assault on international vehicle markets. So promising did the policies seem that Prime Minister Ikeda was soon preparing an income-doubling plan.

Success from overseas sales generated large sums of money for domestic investment, meaning that the 1950s and 1960s saw Japan’s cities change beyond recognition. Highways, airports and subways all blossomed while preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics induced the birth of the first Shinkansen Bullet Train system. Communications technology also improved dramatically, while the Golden Sixties also saw refrigerators and TV sets flood Japanese homes. Japan was playing catch-up, and winning.

By the 1970s, battered European economies – especially Britain – were scratching their heads in bamboozlement over the rapid emergence of Japan as an economic force. Economists hailed the Japanese conception of companies as ‘families,’ looking out for their employees with lifetime contracts and generous health care support.