Atari Politics: National Security and the Political Economy of Japan Inc.

The greatest source of consternation for American policymakers during the 1980s was not the Soviet Union, but Japan. This anxiety arose from Japan’s evolution over the previous three decades into a commercial competitor of American business, a transformation fueled by the country’s political economy of government-supported export-led growth, dubbed “Japan Inc.” in the U.S. press. The American response to Japan’s ability to out compete U.S. firms in the marketplace was nothing short of hysterical and a variety of interested actors remanufactured Japanese ‘competition’ as a threat to national security. To combat this threat, Democrats and Republicans put aside their differences and came together to advocate for greater government support for American business to beat the Japanese at their own game. This paper will chart the rise of these ‘Atari Politics’ and what they mean for how we think about national security at the dawn of the post-Cold War era.