How America Can Bring the Japanese Economic Miracle Stateside

Tokyo increased its labor force, despite a falling population, by recruiting nontraditional employees.

Journal Editorial Report: The week's worst and best from Kim Strassel, Jason Riley, Allysia Finley and Kyle Peterson. Images: Zuma Press/AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly

Japan’s post-World War II prosperity was so remarkable that historians refer to it as an “economic miracle.” By 1990, through a combination of corporate initiative, industrialization, trade liberalization and technological innovation, the country had become the world’s second-largest economy, behind the U.S. Only China, with a population more than 10 times Japan’s, has since displaced it.

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