Japanese capitalism, successful or strange economic model?

Abstract

In the postwar period, Japan's economy recovered miraculously. During the 1970s and 1980s, overcoming the two oil crises, Japan maintained high economic growth, strong competitiveness and a low rate of inflation and unemployment compared to Western countries. Thanks to all of the above, a very favorable world opinion of so-called "Japanese capitalism" emerged.

However, the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s and the ensuing economic depression revealed the structural problems of Japanese capitalism and indicated the need for a transformation of the economic model, closer to the Anglo-Saxon model of Western countries that recovered their economies by spreading strict market fundamentalism. Notwithstanding the above, Japanese capitalism has derived from its own historical development, as well as its geography, racial characteristics and customs, so it is impossible to alter the whole system and change it for the other.

So, what is it about Japanese capitalism that has obtained a certain positive evaluation at the international level? Is it an economic model that can be imitated by other countries? It is a typical Japanese system, but are there any elements that are useful to other nations? From this point of view, this paper covers Japanese capitalism and seeks to clarify its characteristic features. Uruguay and Paraguay in Mercosur, to stay or to leave?