ABSTRACT
The “flying-geese” (FG) theory of economic development is now well known the world over, having gained respectability in academia and popularity in the news media-especially against the backdrop of a string of successful economic catch-ups that have occurred across East Asia since the end of World War II. In particular, the speech delivered by Saburo Okita, former Japanese Foreign Minister, referring to the theory at the fourth Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in Seoul in 1985, further made policy-makers and the mass media aware of it. It is the only theory of Japanese origin that has so far been well recognized outside Japan. It is, for example, considered a major doctrine of development strategy, along with the “big-push” theory and the “import substitution” approach (Radelet and Sachs, 1997).
