MITI or Other Factors?: A Post-War Japanese Camera Industry Historiography

Abstract

After World War II, the Japanese Camera Industry rose from a small copycat industry to a global leader, replacing German camera firms. This historiography uses Chalmers Johnson's theory on Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s (MITI) outsized role in the rapid growth of the Japanese economy during the Japanese Miracle as a case study to compare what scholars have attributed to the rapid growth of the Japanese camera firms. Scholarship on this subject tends to reach a conclusion that contradicts Johnson’s claims that MITI’s hands-on strategies lifted Japanese industries to success. Scholars introduce a multitude of causes, such as state-mandated military assistance, a window of opportunity, and technological innovation.