Introduction: Japan at an inflection point

Japan, inadvertently, has become the outstanding forerunner in a new set of global developments that can be described under the three headings of deflation, downsizing, and demography. New 'lessons from Japan' are to be discovered here, and these are not only admonitory ones. Far from it, for recent Japanese practice exemplifies the new 'choose and focus' strategies that can make an era of general, quantitative business slowdown into one of remarkable sectoral and qualitative development. The implications touch upon wide domains of activity, particularly strategic planning and finance. This introduction surveys some relevant and under-appreciated features of this recent history, in order to understand and project a few main lines of present and near-future developments in connection with the contributions that make up this special issue.