global economic system. In particular, informal mechanisms such as economic networks are seen as shaping this economic region. Throughout much of the 1960s until the 1990s, Japanese-led regional production networks tended to predominate in the region.
During the 1960s, Peng suggests that Japan created a subregional economic zone known as the Sea of Japan economic circle. By the end of the 1970s, this informal mechanism of economic cooperation helped to integrate the economies of Japan, China, and the two Koreas. Later, other subregional economic zones involving Japan, China, and two or more other countries also developed. However, these zones may have been less dominant in terms of fostering East Asian economic development than single actors such as Japan, China, and the United States.
A study conducted by the World Bank in the early 1990s attempted to identify the sources of the impressive success of certain nations in the East Asian region with respect to economic progress. The World Bank scrutinized the performance of eight
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