The following short, but densely packed paper by Professor Shohken Mawatari is the first in a series to be published at irregular intervals in the H.E.S. Bulletin. And if this inaugural contribution is anything to go by, the result will be a substantial and valuable addition to our knowledge of the contemporary state of economics in a variety of countries. Moreover, it may be especially enlightening for American and British readers, who all too often take it for granted that the economic ideas and practices prevailing in their own countries constitute the norm, if not the ideal to which professional economists elsewhere should aspire.