“Japan’s experience makes the infant industry case for protection better than any theory. In the early 1950s J

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“Japan’s experience makes the infant industry case for protection better than any theory. In the early 1950s Japan was a poor nation that survived by exporting textiles and toys. The Japanese government protected what at first were inefficient, high-cost steel and automobile industries, and those industries came to dominate world markets.”

[gonorth]

Because deadlines were put on them, like infant industries in the Asian Tigers, to perform up to world standards. Most governments don't have the discipline to cut off an industry that they have been supporting when it fails to refine its production techniques to meet or beet world quality standards in an economically efficient manner.