East Asian Growth

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 6 is about the Japanese economic recovery after the war. Many economists had spent the war years helping to provide the voracious Japanese war machine with resources. After the war, Saburo Okita and other economists led a national push to rebuild the domestic economy with policies such as the Income Doubling Plan helping to raise living standards. This approach was copied by many other East Asian economies, joining together in trade agreements, the so-called ‘flying geese’ pattern. Okita argued with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai about the real purpose of economic development: living standards for citizens or national security against invasion.