"America's policy really boils down to the steady effort to give consumers more and more for less and less: deregulation, expanding free trade, embracing Wal-Mart and other chains. Japan's policy has boiled down to a steady effort to develop the country's manufacturing base, even if that leaves consumers paying higher prices and investors getting worse returns. Different systems, different goals - Japan, despite its supposed "lost decade", has done a good job by its own lights. Its current account surplus, widely predicted to have evaporated by the mid-1990s, instead remains the largest in the world in absolute terms. Toyota, which during the "japan as No.1" years dreamed of being the world's leading automaker, will very soon be just that. American economist often scold Japan for its "foolish" emphasis on exports and surpluses at the cost of immediate consumer welfare. But no one who visits modern Japan will think its people look poor."
