Reviving manufacturing has become a prime policy objective for national leaders from Washington to Beijing to New Delhi. We can debate whether chasing factories is worth the effort in the 21st century, but not the difficulty of building and maintaining a robust industrial sector in the face of relentless global competition and technological change.
At least one country seems to have figured out how to do just that, however, and a highly unexpected one: Japan.
Factories churning out cars, chips and Walkmans were the engines of Japan's storied growth miracle back in the 1970s and 1980s. But like most other advanced economies, the importance of manufacturing in Japan's economy has declined sharply over the past two decades. Shunning their aging, expensive home country, Japanese firms invested in new plants in China, the United States and elsewhere in search of lower costs or new consumers.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.