Most of Japan's modern economic history consists of a long series of achievements pronounced impossible by the outside world. Japan was building the foundations of world-beating steel and electronics industries while Occupation officials urged that scarce resources be devoted to "suitable" exports such as cocktail favors.
The International Monetary Fund preaches open financial markets as the key to rapid growth; Japan shut its doors firmly to foreign capital and piled up annual growth rates of 10 percent-plus for 18 years financed entirely out of domestic savings.
The world thought Japan finished in 1974 in the wake of the Arab oil embargo; by 1976, Japan had recovered from the resultant stagflation, something that took the United States eight years.