After rapid development in recent decades, many countries in East Asia have stepped into the ranks of middle-income countries from low-income countries, and are likely to fall into the "middle-income trap". Japan is an exception. It is internationally recognized as one of the countries and regions that have successfully crossed the "middle income trap". Summarizing Japan's successful experience in overcoming the "middle income trap" mainly includes the following points: adjusting the economic structure and changing the growth mode. From the early 1950s to 1980s, Japan realized the timely transformation and upgrading of light industry, heavy industry and tertiary industry, and completed the transformation from "establishing a country through trade" to "establishing a country through technology" and then to "establishing a country through culture", which laid a material and cultural foundation for successfully crossing the "middle income trap". According to the actual needs of post-war economic and social development and changes in the international environment, Japan has carried out four major industrial restructuring. In the nearly 20 years after 1955, Japan has established the strategy of building a country through trade, realized the leading role of heavy industry and promoted the development of related industries. In 1950s, fiber was the main export product of Japan. In the 1970s, Japan's general machinery, precision instruments, semiconductors and power equipment contributed the most to the total factor productivity, and the proportion of machinery industry in exports rose sharply. The rapid rise of automobile manufacturing industry has promoted the rapid development of heavy industries such as steel and petrochemical industry and chemical industry, and the mechanical and electronic industry has gradually become the most internationally competitive industry in Japan. The oil crisis in the 1970s further accelerated the adjustment of Japan's industrial structure, and the proportion of heavy chemical industry dropped significantly. It gradually proposed that knowledge-intensive industries such as computers and aerospace should be the leading industries, and began to accelerate the implementation of industrial restructuring with "greening" as the core, and actively build a resource-saving and environment-friendly economic structure. Especially since the 1970s, Japan began to control hyperinflation, adjust its industrial structure, develop new energy sources, launch the "enterprise energy consumption slimming" campaign, and vigorously develop energy-saving technologies, new energy sources and oil substitution technologies. In 1974 and 1978, it put forward the "daylight plan" and "moonlight plan". The former is a new energy development plan such as solar energy, coal energy, geothermal energy and hydrogen energy, while the latter is to strengthen the research and development of energy-saving technologies, improve energy conversion efficiency and recycle unused energy. At the same time, the Ministry of the Environment was established to strengthen environmental legislation, support environmental protection, and clearly promote the transformation of energy-intensive industries into energy-saving industries, so as to break through the resource and energy constraints of economic growth and reduce the pressure of environmental pollution. Since 1980s, Japan's industrial structure has once again turned to final consumption. Driven by the government, the proportion of the tertiary industry with cultural creativity as the development direction has increased rapidly, and the service industry has become the leading industry of Japan's economic growth. 1995, Japan's cultural policy promotion conference published an important report, "Building a country with a new culture: several important strategies for revitalizing culture", and put forward the strategic policy of "building a country through culture" in the second century. In 200 1 year, the total output value of Japan's cultural industry accounts for about 18.3% of GDP, and the cultural industry has become the second pillar industry in Japan after manufacturing. Implement the strategy of "rejuvenating the country through science and technology" and cultivate the ability of independent innovation. Because "building the country through processing trade" can no longer meet the needs of Japan's economic development, Japan has established the strategy of "building the country through science and technology" and made it the basic national policy of economic development in the new period. In the 1990s, on the basis of "takenism" and promoting technological progress, Japan paid more attention to basic and pioneering research, carried out independent technological innovation, formulated the Basic Law on Science and Technology, and further put forward the strategy of "building the country through technological innovation". Since then, it has developed into a strategy of "building the country through science and technology", thus quickly realizing the catch-up of science and technology. In order to solve the problem of insufficient endogenous motivation, Japan has accelerated the pace of cultivating domestic independent innovation capability since the 1980s. The Japanese government not only designed a set of strategies to cultivate domestic independent innovation capability from a national perspective, but also supported private R&D activities from policy measures and platform construction, vigorously supported the construction of independent innovation platforms, and effectively improved the transformation rate of technological achievements. In the early 1980s, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry put forward the strategic slogan of "building the country through technology", and Japan's Ministry of Science and Technology also put forward the strategic slogan of "building the country through science and technology" in an effort to become a world power in science and technology, which marked that Japan's technological progress had entered a real "innovation stage" from the "imitation era". The Japanese government has increased its support for enterprise R&D through the implementation of preferential tax measures, low-interest financing of supplementary funds and commission fees, and vigorously supported private sector R&D in policy. The combination of "production, politics and learning" is a successful model for Japan to catch up with European and American countries in industrial technology through introduction, absorption, improvement and development. At the same time, the Japanese government has specially enacted laws to promote the establishment of "innovation center" science and technology parks, accelerate the March into the era of electronic industry, increase the cultivation of strategic high-tech industries, and vigorously cultivate independent innovation capabilities. There are many factors that lead to the "middle income trap" in the development stage of middle income, but income distribution is one of the main factors. The reason why some Latin American countries fall into the "middle income trap" is that the income gap has widened sharply and the social differentiation is serious, and the institutional arrangements related to income distribution can not meet the needs of economic development and social harmony. For example, the Gini coefficients of Brazil and Paraguay are 0.59 and 0.58, respectively. The reason why Japan can successfully overcome the "middle income trap" is inseparable from the universal fairness of income distribution. In the early 1960s, the Japanese economy entered a "depression" stage. In order to solve many problems such as over-reliance on investment to drive growth, the imminent depletion of demographic dividend and insufficient personal consumption, Japan has formulated the "National Income Multiplication Plan". First of all, mainly through agricultural land reform, accelerate the process of water conservancy, chemical fertilizer and mechanization, raise the price of agricultural products, improve agricultural productivity and increase farmers' income. Secondly, by establishing the minimum wage standard, affirming the important role of small and medium-sized enterprises in the national economy, establishing a division of labor system for large and small enterprises and establishing a closely coordinated social division of labor and cooperation system for large and small enterprises, thus promoting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, narrowing the wage gap and improving the overall wage level. Third, through the implementation of effective education policies, adjust redistribution. The popularization of basic education and secondary education has effectively increased the accumulation of human capital and raised their income level. In addition, three national comprehensive development plans, 196 1, 1969 and 1977, have been formulated, striving to achieve balanced development between regions and between urban and rural areas. Since 1960, Japan launched the "national income multiplication plan", which has enhanced the purchasing power of the people and stimulated the increase of private investment. After only seven years of hard work, Japan's national income has doubled and the middle-income class has increased substantially. At the same time, while Japan is marching towards a high-income country, it also draws lessons from the experience of European and American welfare systems and constructs a social welfare system suitable for its national conditions. In 1960s, Japan established five social insurance systems: annuity, medical care, employment, work injury and nursing. Since1980s, four basic security schemes have been implemented, namely, income, medical care, education and housing. Before the arrival of the bubble economy in 1980s, Japan basically completed the construction of social security system and social welfare system, and accumulated enough strength to fight against the more serious and longer economic recession that followed. In short, the reason why Japan can successfully overcome the "middle income trap" is not only because it has successfully realized the transformation and upgrading of its economic development model and industry, especially the transformation from "imitation" to independent innovation, but also because it has well balanced the distribution of interests, controlled the expansion of the income gap, and provided a relatively stable social environment for crossing the "middle income trap".