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It is shows a great deal of disrespect to lump the economic policies of China and Japan in the same context....
I'm with Lord T on this one. Japan had and still has a restrictive market. Japan for years used agricultural reasons to keep out competition. Furthermore, Japan's Iron Triangle basically acted as a protection method by funneling government contracts to select Japanese businesses over foreign competition. I don't know if it was as bad as France's but Japan does have protected domestic markets. As for South Korea, Park's regime kept out foreign competition while funneling resources to specific export industries in a planned economy.
The main difference is IP rights, but I think Lord T missed something important. While China basically fails to enforce IP rights, it also mandates that foreign investors hand over their IP through forced technology transfers as part of the deal to invest into China. It's not just lack of protection, it's essentially pillaging IP.