Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast.

Episode 20, Japan as number one.

By the 1970s, Japan was clearly a major power once more.

Rather than dominating Asia via military and political power,

Japan was becoming a global leader through economics,

and the people of Japan were reaping the benefits in ways they never

had under the Japanese Empire. Wages were up, the standard of living was up, and Japan was

rapidly passing the other First World Nations in economic performance.

Economic growth was continuing, though not the blistering 10% growth rate of the 1960s,

the Japanese economy managed a respectable average of about 5% per year in the 1970s and 4% in the 1980s.

The intentional avoidance of competition between Japanese firms and the ganging up approach to

foreign ones meant that Japan's export economy remained extremely strong.

Japan did run into a few hitches during the 1970s.

Most notably, in 1973, OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries,

an oil cartel of all the various countries with large oil industries,

announced an embargo of oil against the United States and all-American allies because of

American support for the state of Israel.

Japan, being a U.S. ally, was affected by the OPEC embargo, but the embargo did not do any

serious damage to the Japanese economy.

bureaucrats and industrial leaders were able to work together to encourage and promote more efficient use of energy.

For example, Japan became one of the first countries in the world to encourage the use of home-mounted solar panels.

Production was also shifted away from petroleum-heavy products and towards things like consumer electronics that don't require as much oil for plastics.

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