Yoshida Doctrine

Prime minister Yoshida Shigeru's policy for Japan's postwar recovery. It consisted of focusing the country's resources on economic production supported by well-trained workers while adopting the United States stance on issues of security and international politics. The policy led to spectacular economic growth and continued to guide Japan's economic and foreign policies for decades. By the 1990s, however, it created a new set of issues that Japan had to contend with. Large trade imbalances and protectionism brought on intense pressure from without to eliminate unfair trade practices, while within Japan businesses with global markets called for a more flexible workforce and open markets for foreign goods. Japan also found itself under pressure to assume a greater share of the international military burden, which involved facing public distrust of the military and long-held pacifism. (from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2001-05 Columbia University Press).