The realization of Japan’s economic modernization is the result of the simultaneous action of many factors, including external conditions and the efforts of the Japanese government and people themselves.
The democratic reforms implemented by Japan in the early post-war period promoted major changes in its social and economic structure. It also made partial adjustments to social production relations and established a bourgeois democratic system and effective system that adapt to contemporary economic development. Enterprise organizational forms and management systems that are conducive to the use of modern management methods can stimulate and release the labor wisdom and creativity contained in the people and become the basic driving force for promoting rapid social and economic development.
The evolution of the post-war international situation has provided Japan with good opportunities for economic development. Japan was forced to give up the right to war in the constitution, and later allowed the United States to station troops in exchange for the United States' "nuclear umbrella." As a result, its military expenditures were quite small, and it was able to devote a large amount of manpower and material resources to the development of a peaceful economy. Before and after the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States began to vigorously support Japan. It not only gave it about 3.6 billion US dollars in "special needs" orders, but also returned 850 confiscated military supplies companies to the Japanese government and provided a large amount of loans and assistance. U.S. private capital also poured into Japan on a large scale. The support of the United States enabled Japan to obtain the capital and technology necessary for economic development.
Japan has always attached great importance to education since the Meiji Restoration. In 1872, the government promulgated a unified national school system and mandated compulsory primary education. In 1947, education reform was carried out and the scope of compulsory education was expanded to junior high schools. By the mid-1950s, the education rate among the population over 25 years old reached 94%. In the mid-1970s, high school education was basically universal. The proportion of government education expenditures in national income gradually increased. It was around 5% in the 1950s and 1960s, rose to 6% to 7% in the 1970s, and reached 7.2% in 1980. In terms of talent structure, the government adjusts the focus of education based on the development and changes of the economic structure in different periods. During the period of economic recovery, in order to improve the cultural quality of workers, the focus was on universalizing primary compulsory education; in the late 1950s and 1960s, when the country vigorously developed heavy and chemical industries, the cultivation of intermediate technical talents was the focus of educational development; after the 1970s, , Japan's industrial structure has shifted from capital-intensive heavy and chemical industries to knowledge-intensive industries, and the government has made it the focus of education to cultivate high-level talents who can independently develop new technologies and mid-level talents who are skilled in the use of emerging technologies. Because Japan has long adhered to the "education first" strategy, it has ensured human resources for economic development.
The Japanese government has taken advantage of various conditions at home and abroad to determine a development path with its own characteristics. In this regard, Japan's state intervention methods and the internal management characteristics of enterprises have greatly promoted economic development. In addition, based on Japan's characteristics, the government has adopted the policy of introducing advanced foreign technologies on the one hand, and on the other hand established the strategy of "building a nation through trade" to actively and effectively explore international markets, expand import and export trade, and strengthen capital exports. In terms of introducing advanced technologies, the government attaches great importance to the latest trends in world science and technology development, and even uses industrial espionage to obtain scientific and technological intelligence information. At the same time, it implemented an approval system in the 1950s to manage and guide the introduction work to avoid repeated introductions and save foreign exchange. After entering the 1960s, Japan's economic strength and foreign exchange payment ability strengthened, and the government's management in this area was relaxed. Japan's introduction of technology is selective and focused based on the country's economic development conditions and actual needs. Before the mid-1950s, when the country was in a period of economic recovery, it mainly introduced traditional complete sets of equipment and technologies from basic industrial sectors such as electricity, steel, automobiles, shipbuilding, and machinery manufacturing. After the mid-1950s, especially in the early 1960s, China gradually turned to purchasing patents to introduce emerging technologies. Since the mid-1970s, in order to realize the transformation from capital-intensive to technology- and knowledge-intensive industries, the introduction of cutting-edge technology has been the main focus. In order to absorb and transform imported technologies, Japanese companies spend huge sums of money to attract outstanding talents, learn from others' strengths, and reform and innovate on the basis of imitation. In terms of exploring international markets, the total import and export trade volume was only US$4.5 billion in 1955, reaching nearly US$8.5 billion in 1960, rising to US$16.621 billion in 1965, and jumping to nearly US$38.2 billion in 1970. Capital exports totaled US$6.79 billion in 1970.
Long-term persistence in promoting policies of high accumulation, high investment and strengthening capital accumulation to achieve a low-cost and high-efficiency operating mechanism is also one of the contents of the Japanese government's macro-control policy. High accumulation is based on high rates of exploitation, high savings rates and low welfare. After the war, the wages of Japanese workers were the lowest among Western developed countries, and their growth rate was far slower than labor productivity. On the contrary, influenced by cultural traditions, the household savings rate of the Japanese people (i.e., the proportion of household savings to household disposable income) is the highest among Western developed countries. Investment formed by household savings accounts for about 1/1 of the total social investment. 3. In addition, the government also made huge investments. In the 1960s, government investment accounted for about 24% of total domestic investment, and in the 1970s it rose to about 30%. The combination of private investment and state investment caused the country's total fixed capital formation to surge from 1,703 billion yen in 1955 to 87,561 billion yen in 1985, a 50-fold increase in 30 years. The proportion of total fixed capital formation in GDP has remained at around 1/3 for a long time, which is higher than that of other developed countries. The investment efficiency of capital has always been higher than that of developed countries in Europe and the United States. Under the premise of high efficiency, the sharp increase in investment has promoted the rapid development of Japan's economy.