including the point that
nations pass through stages of competitive development and that government‘s appropriate role shifts
as the economy progresses. By stimulating early demand for advanced products, confronting industries
with the need to pioneer frontier technology through
symbolic cooperative projects, establishing prizes
that reward quality, and pursuing other policies that
magnify the forces of the diamond, the Japanese government accelerates the pace of innovation. But like
government officials anywhere, at their worst Japanese bureaucrats can make the same mistakes: attempting to manage industry structure, protecting
the market too long, and yielding to political pressure
to insulate inefficient retailers, farmers, distributors,
and industrial companies from competition