During this time, Japan concentrated on international trade, rather than the territorial expansionism they had been practising. There were two things that helped Japan during this time. First, it began to produce things for export in the international market, and second, world trade began to accelerate making it easy to sell on the world markets. The work force, of course, was as disciplined and hard-working as ever and so was able to turn out large quantities of inexpensive goods. Today, Japan is successful to the point where western nations are either complaining about its trading practices or looking to it to discover the secrets of economic growth.
Japan still makes it extremely difficult for nations to export goods to Japan.
Japan still subsidizes its farmers so that it is difficult to sell agricultural products. Japan is accused of using unfair trade barriers against other countries something Japan denies. Despite the fact that it has few natural resources, Japan has the strongest economy of all industrialized nations. Japan is held up as a model of industrial development. Despite the fact that Japan lacks raw materials, Japan has been able to become one of the world's leading industrial powers.