Planning today

Using the experiences of Japan as a basis, the author examines a number of today’s major planning issues. He begins by outlining the characteristics of planning during and after the war, when the State exercised considerable control over the economic process. Once this period had passed and the functioning of the market had been re-established, the complex State/market relationships characteristic of all mixed economies emerged. Both the State and them arket have important roles to play, and each influences the other. The economy as a whole has objectives it must meet in order to provide satisfactory conditions for its members, but these objectives are often contradictory; the main function of planning is to lend them greater consistency and efficiency from a strategic standpoint.