In order to affirm its status as an "advanced industrial nation," Japan has formally adopted a sweeping program of liberalization in its own trade and payments. In practice, however, this program is subject to various limitations; to a considerable extent the apparently smooth implementation of the liberalization program may be attributed to the system of informal "administrative guidance" by which conflicts have been adjusted and symptoms of economic instability partly suppressed. Professor Hellerman analyzes the interrelations between changes in the structure of Japan's industrial...