While bringing unprecedented prosperity to post-war Japan, her "economic miracle" at the same time led to greater vulnerability owing to a much higher degree of dependency on raw material imports and outlets for export goods. This was brought home to the Japanese by events in the early 1970’s....

The island's rapid industrialisation over the past decade and its development as the main trade and financial centre of South-East Asia, supported by a phenomenal growth in tourism, constitute yet another Asian economic miracle.