The Political Economy of Japan Bradley M. RICHARDSON

farm. Many persons moved to city apartments too small to accommodate agedparents. The proportion of elderly living with their children declined because of thesetrends, at the same time that the proportion of older people in the population was onthe increase. In some senses, jobs in industry and services, which increased innumber as the economy grew, also provided less security than traditional rural life.The LDP itself experienced substantial electoral losses as the populationbecame more mobile and persons with urban occupations (and therefore oftenopposition party attachments) spilled out of the cities into surrounding areas. TheLDP's loss to opposition party candidates of many city mayorships and urbanprefecture governorships was especially vexing. Opposition control of localgovernments itself led to expansion of social welfare services in a number ofimportant cases. The political events in local politics and structural change created awindow of opportunity for policy change. However, it was mainly bureaucrats and notLDP leaders who took advantage of this opening to propose significant increases inmedical insurance coverage for the aged and other social welfare systemimprovements (114).Trade Successes, Trade Issues, Liberalization and the Partial Dismantling ofthe Developmental State. Indicative economic planning has continued in Japanalthough the rhetoric of plans from the mid-1960s on increasingly has stressedeconomic stability and quality of life. The Japanese economy also grew in-most yearseven though growth rates in the 1970s and 1980s were considerably lower thanthose of the 1960s. Moreover, Japan's economic growth during the 1970s wasuneven in different industries. Industries such as automobiles and electronics werehighly successful while others like iron and steel underwent a "structural" recession.Foreign trade, which had prospered during the high growth period, continued toflourish in the 1970s but with a different product mix. Automobiles and consumerelectronics were more prominent while shipbuilding and iron and steel, which hadbeen 1950s and 1960s leaders, declined in importance.Japan's role in world trade has grown at levels matching her domesticeconomic growth. In 1958 Japan's total exports were a nominal $2.8 billion. By 1975foreign trade had grown to $55 billion, in 1980 it was $127 billion and by 1990 thetrade figure was 287 billion dollars. Exports quadrupled in the 1970s and doubledonce again in the 1980s. Reflecting these figures, Japan's share of total world tradeincreased from around 3 percent in 1960 to 12 percent in 1990. While inflation in oilprices and enormous growth in the value of petroleum trade changed the structure ofworld commerce and depressed markets in many countries during the 1970s,Japan's foreign sales of some products continued to boom (115).Japan's postwar trade success was predicated on free and expanding worldcommerce. Increased external demand for Japanese products was also important.