The Intertwining of Government and Industry: the Case of the Transportation System

Abstract

Japan is a country in which it is literally impossible to tell for certain where its government leaves off and its private sector begins. This chapter will attempt briefly to describe this interrelationship primarily from the perspective of the deployment of government power and how that power creates conditions in which government and private companies are parts of a complex matrix in which almost no decision can be said to be made solely by one or the other. Even a superficial examination of the role of the government shows a power so great that one becomes aware that it could be dictatorial and corrosive if improperly exercised. This creates the need to understand if possible why it is not, and how the interplay of forces has taken place to produce results which must be considered both effective and reasonably democratic.