That has long been a dream of industrial planners who worry that Japan is dangerously dependent on the Middle East for oil.

"Clinton really took everyone by surprise," one of Japan's top industrial planners said.

He cultivated Singapore's strong-willed leadership and its legions of industrial planners, who have left nothing to chance in building one of Asia's most incredible economic success stories.

But Japan's industrial planners convinced the country's electric utilities that together they could do in nuclear technology what they have done in other industries.

The businesses have long been directed by South Korea's industrial planners.

With things this bad, Japan's industrial planners contend, they have little chance of twisting concessions out of Japanese companies.

When Japan's industrial planners outlined their vision of the next two decades, they concluded last year that the country was more committed than ever to nuclear power.

Japan's once-feared Fifth Generation project in advanced computing ended a 10-year run last week with few useful results, and many wonder whether the country's industrial planners are losing their touch.

This patchwork of indicators is being read by industrial planners as a sign that eventually they will have to find new products.

Harold Wilson's industrial planners arranged for BMC to be amalgamated into British Leyland in 1968.