Effective utilization of the globalizing forces is important. In the case of Japan,
introducing foreign technologies through technology purchases and importing
advanced industrial machines was crucial to successful industrialization. Opening
up to free trade in a short period worked as a credible trigger for the private
sector to enhance its competitiveness. The enthusiasm of the bureaucrats and
politicians for industrial development was probably real, but the industrial policy,
particularly with respect to limiting the number of firms and encouraging
collusion, did not work. Industrialization was successful when private dynamism
overrode the government’s original intention.