Moreover, the extent to which postwar Japan remained a “reference society” for South Korea was itself, in part, a production of considerable colonial contacts that had created links of language, economic structures and a shared understanding of how to construct high growth political economies. If the case for considerable continuity is this persuasive – and this does not necessitate denying either important changes in the subsequent political economy, or the credit due to Koreans for their economic achievements, for they could easily derailed the whole process – it follows that the roots of the high-growth Korean political economy lie deep in a unique colonial experience. The key elements, however, of the eventual path it adopted – a Japanese-style, state-driven export economy – were deeply etched into the social fabric. More specifically, Korean economy, especially southern Korean economy, was already expert-oriented, its entrepreneurs had considerable experience in selling abroad, and the state within this economy had learned from its own history that strong support for business and exports, and tight control over labor, was a route to high economic growth.