For more than a century, from the Meiji Restoration until the collapse of the economic bubble of the 1990s, Japan developed at an explosive pace. However, since then it has failed to fully respond to the globalization of the world economy. Why does a country's political-economic system show such different results under different conditions? Kent Calder uses the concept of “circles of compensation” in an attempt to explain this phenomenon. They are understood as groups that represent certain economic, political or bureaucratic interests and determine corporate and individual responses to investment and innovation. Calder looks at how these interests operate in seven areas of the economy, from the food supply to the consumer electronics market. The result of the study is a detailed overview of Japanese compensation circles and a road map for their expansion in the future.