Yet Japan's success was greatest among its exporting giants, who were in the least controlled parts of the economy and the most exposed to foreign competition.
Their new improved reformed reforms are, they insist, merely an evolution of New Labour's health service remedy - more choice, more competition and more private sector involvement but at a controlled pace.
The fear here is that a Democratic-controlled Congress will again squeeze student lenders and attempt to ramp up competition from the direct lending program.
This is a by-product of increasing competition in the overall smartphone industry, which could cause Apple to lose leverage over its tightly controlled supply ecosystem thereby endangering its famed high margins.