Good question. I suspect it's like Germany and precision machinery/automotives. Japan lost comprehensively enough to destroy any notion that their government w

Good question. I suspect it's like Germany and precision machinery/automotives. Japan lost comprehensively enough to destroy any notion that their government was good, and had a huge US involvement in the rebuild. IOW they were rebuilt along US lines and, like Germany, benefited from the "loser's victory" in which they avoided a sharp turn towards big government. During the same era the UK lost its own car manufacturing industry, with aggressive unions and general industrial malaise being the prime culprits.