Also the whole structure and relationships associated with Japanese businesses and the government and like, e.g. MITI [1]. I went to business school in the mid-eighties and I remember any number of articles and visiting lecturers arguing for how the US had to emulate Japanese industrial policy and planning or we were doomed.

Certainly there was also significant attention to some of the more specific processes and practices associated with Japanese manufacturing (and far less to US manufacturing) at the time, which have been largely proven out. (And are arguably being reflected in a lot of modern DevOps software practices.) However, a lot of notable economists and others were also calling for much more systematic cooperation/planning between government and companies (especially manufacturers). Sematech was an example from the semiconductor industry.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_International_Trad...