Porter took an example from the book he is now writing called The Two Japans. Japanese industry can be divided into two distinct halves. In one half--including cars and electronics--the government rarely interferes. In the other half--finance, services and most recently computer software--the government has again and again adopted protectionist measures, but the industries are all weak, hopeless cases.
波特以目前正在著手寫作的《兩個日本》一書為例，在他的觀察中，日本產業可分為截然不同的兩半，一半是政府較少插手的，如電子、汽車等產業，競爭力十足；另一半如金融、服務業，乃至於這幾年的電腦軟體業，在政府重重保護扶植下，卻似扶不起的阿斗。