Why 17 is not the magic number in industrial policy

A lack of focus threatens to hobble Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi’s growth strategy.

Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi has anointed 17 sectors as the centrepiece of her quest to end decades of low growth. But this number highlights the risk that it is too diffused to do the job, says the writer.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has anointed 17 sectors as the centrepiece of her quest to end decades of low growth.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Leo Lewis

English speakers often reach unconsciously for the number 17. Its three syllables give it a rhythmic, emphatic edge over all other sub-20 cardinals; its prime, non-roundedness gives a sense of both the deliberate and the random.

These qualities make 17 the constant ally of the songwriter, the hyperbolist and the huckster. It feels precisely the wrong number, however, for the waging of economic war in a time of world order overhaul and weaponised industrial policy.

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Sanae Takaichi

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