After World War II, East Asia was the only region of the world that experienced continual substantial economic growth and no other East Asian country enjoyed more economic success than Japan. The Japanese economic pie grew at an annual rate of ten percent from the mid-1950s until the Arab oil shocks of the early 70s. The Japanese then managed to maintain much more modest but steady growth rates until the early 1990s. In the early 1870s, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, Japan's new political leadership faced the problem of Western imperialism. Japan's oligarchs quickly decided to build both a strong economy and a strong military.
Free trade is considered harmful much of the time.
The legal framework is considered subservient to state interests and, most importantly, the economy is viewed as existing to serve the interests of the nation, not the individual. Free-trade is considered highly desirable. Above all, the economy is viewed as serving the individual not the state. Through great state assistance to a few industries, Japan had become, even before World War II, a world leader in aluminum, ship building, and rayon. While Japan's defeat in World War II meant a radical de-emphasis of the military, the Japanese continued to pursue the goal of economic strength.