Is Japan's Stagnant Economy?

As the primary government agency in charge of formulating and executing industrial policy, MITI played an important role in creating the economic miracle by shifting resource to specific industries at the right time. Before the capital liberalization of the late 1960s and 1970s, neither importation of foreign technology nor joint venture was approved without MITI and its various advisory committees’ consensus. Even the time of importation of technology was also strictly controlled in the hand of MITI in order to ensure that the technology was nurturing to the industry and consequently boost the economy. Furthermore, the government-controlled financial institutions like the Japanese Development Bank and the government-run postal savings system also played an important role in the economic miracle by the means of controlling the capital investment to the strategic industries in accordance with government plans. Thus, it is no doubt that Japan’s government, especially through MITI, had exercised a considerable degree of state intervention and protection on its economy to achieve the national goals and therefore lead to the economic

Although Japan changed in many ways from 1853 to 1941, there were also many factors that remained the same throughout the history of Japan. One such continuity was the maintained existence of a figurehead ruler controlled by other political authorities. The feudalistic emperor of Japan was the supposed “highest, most powerful authority” in the land, but was actually controlled by the military leaders- the shogun. Similarly, the militaristic emperor of Japan decades later continued to remain a figurehead ruler controlled by military and government officials. In addition, Japan continued to remain reliant on exports in order to maintain its economy. As a result of Japan’s small geographical size, the island nation had few natural resources and was forced to rely on exports to survive economically. The nation also grew increasingly reliant on other nations to provide materials and supplies that it could not provide for itself. This complete reliance on other nations was seen illustrated when the Japanese military was provoked to attacking another superpower- the United States, in response to the 1940 United States embargo

The Zaibatsu, which is a combination of the top grossing companies in Japan and have many connections in the government and court system that give them a substantial amount of power. Lastly, Japan’s resources are very limited because only 12% of its land is fertile, and they must import 80% of its energy to them. Socially, Japan’s ageing population is another reason why the economy has become stagnate. The ageing population will eventually cause labor shortages that Japan cannot replace.

While the Depression initially hit Japan hard by showing that half of all factories were closed by 1931, children in some areas were reduced to begging for food from passengers on passing trains, and farmers were eating tree bark therefore active government policies quickly responded. Under the 1930s minister of finance, Korekiyo Takahashi, the government increased its spending to provide jobs, which in turn generated new demands for food and manufactured items, yielding not only the export boom but also the virtual elimination of unemployment by 1936. Indeed, Japan made a full turn toward industrialization after 1931, its economy growing much more rapidly than that of the West and rivaling the surge of the Soviet Union. Production of iron, steel, and chemicals soared. The spread of electric power was the most rapid in the world. The number of workers, mainly men, in the leading industries rose sevenfold during the 1930s. Quality of production increased as assembly-line methods were introduced, and Japanese manufacturing goods began to rival those of the West. Japan also initiated a series of new industrial policies designed to stabilize the labor force and prevent social unrest. Big companies began to offer lifetime contracts to a minority of skilled workers and to develop company entertainments and other activities designed to promote hard work and devotion. By 1937, Japan boasted the

The economies of the U.S. and Japan are very integrated in terms of trade in goods and services. As stated in the article the article, “Japan-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress,” of the Congressional Research Service, the U.S. is the world’s largest economy and Japan is the world’s third-largest economy. This status makes the U.S. and Japan valuable trading partners, considering the U.S. was Japan’s second-largest source of imports and their largest export partner as of 2014 (Chanlett-Avery, Manyin, et.al). One can see through examining past economic crises in Okinawa and the U.S. that such incidences impede healthy global relationships. In the article, “U.S.-Japan Economic Relations: Significance, Prospects, and Policy Options,” William H. Cooper, specialist in international Trade and Finance, explains ways in which two specific Japanese economic crises affected global relations. One financial crisis occurred in 2008, when the economies of the U.S. and Europe were declining, leading to a decline in global demand for Japanese exports. Another occurred in 2011, following the tsunami, earthquake, and a nuclear incident in northeast Japan. These exigencies lead to great deficits, specifically in U.S. and European trade (Cooper, 2014). As previously mentioned, Okinawa has been unable to develop a self-sufficient economy. These past economic crises show that when Japan is economically

Beginning from the last years of World War II and then following Japan’s defeat to the allied forces, the Japanese had to endure arguably its most painful few years to date. The majority of Japan’s cities had all been completely destroyed during the war, especially in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the first atomic bombs were dropped. As a result, the majority of Japanese population had to not only survive the extremes of the seasons in make-shift shelters, but also endure starvation due to the lack of food and water available. However, thanks to the American occupation of Japan following the end of the war, Japan was finally able to recover. The year 1950 turned out to be the beginning of an extended period of Japanese economic and social prosperity. Starting from 1950 to 1990, Japan had experienced unrivalled miraculous economic growth and success in comparison to the majority of other developed countries. For this reason, the Japanese economic success during this period is known by many as the “economic miracle”. There are multiple reasons behind this so called “miracle”, and this essay explores some of these causes. In particular focusing on the major factors which include; the American occupation of Japan, the Korean and Vietnam War as well as social and economic reasons.

Japan’s unemployment rate of about 4% opposed to the U.S. unemployment rate of close to 10%. Even the financial debt to GDP ration is an advantage, and debt in the private sector has not increased unlike the U.S. and European countries, (Time, 2009). In addition, since Japan is a huge exporter and with the U.S. demand going downward, the international balances and growth declined especially as the dollar value dropped and the yen surged. •

The growth rate of real gross domestic product (GDP) shot up above 4% per year, and the long-anemic productivity growth rate accelerated. Rapid growth continued through the end of the 1990s, and the unemployment rate fell below 5 percent in 1997 while inflation remained subdued. In 1999 the expansion surpassed that of the 1960s as the longest US expansion on record. The pundits proclaimed that the benefits of neoliberal restructuring had finally been demonstrated. They noted that, by contrast, the Asian growth miracles, except for China, had collapsed in the 1997 financial crisis, while Japan’s unreconstructed statist economy remained mired in a decade-long

Today in Japan, a reinvention is necessary. There are many struggles with the young generation, the old generation, and catastrophic events which should be addressed. Specifically, the Japanese economy has been experiencing deflation for the past twenty years. In an article, the results of the deflation were described. The authors said, “Because of fewer available jobs and lower

In 1945, Japan was devastated and lost a quarter of the national wealth after suffering a defect in the second world war. A majority of the commercial buildings and accommodation had been demolished, and massive machinery and equipment formerly used in production for the civil market were out of service to provide metal for military supplies (Miyazaki 1967). Despite the trash and ruins had left over in Japan, Japan was able to rebuilding its infrastructure and reconstruct their economy. It is revealed that the Japanese economy was on its way to recovery, which received a rapid development since the war, and the reconstruction of Japan had spent less than forty years to become the world’s second largest economy in the 1980s. This essay will explore the three factors account for the economic growth of post-war Japan: the financial assistance from the United States, the external environment, and the effective policy of Japanese government.

The article brings up the fact that Japan’s economy contracted during the second quarter of 2014 due to increase in consumption tax. The reason behind this is that as consumption tax goes up, consumption in the whole nation is brought down hence it acts like a contractionary fiscal policy, which makes matter worse when the economy is in recession.

Since the Second World War, the Japanese economy had experienced remarkable growth, transforming from a developing to an advanced developed economy in a single generation. However, on the edge of a three-decade long “Economic Miracle,” in the late 1980s, Japan faced its regrettable “bubble economy” in which asset prices rapidly soared, money supply and credit underwent sizable increase, and economic activity overheated for a prolonged period (Okina p.396). At the bubble’s peak in 1989, the Japanese stock market obtained a value of around $4 trillion, reaching the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average of ¥38,915 (four times the level they had been in 1983) (Siebert p.9). This was approximately 44 percent of the world’s equity market capitalization (Stone p.149). At around similar time frame, Japan also saw a spectacular surge in land prices with the land values five times that of the United States (Stone p.149). Hence, during this time, the economy relished an investment and consumption boom to the extent that Japan rapidly became known as the world’s largest creditor country. However, such record growth fell drastically with the burst of the bubble: the stock market plummeted by over 60 percent from its peak in 1989 to 1992 while speculative land prices fell over 50 percent and essential land prices declined by about 15 to 20 percent (Okina p.397). Overall, the bursting of the bubble resulted in a detrimental decline in asset prices, the accumulation of enormous

The deregulation of financial markets catalysed by Globalisation worldwide has impacted on the amount of trade within the Japanese economy beneficially allowing easier access to foreign currencies, facilitating a higher flow of goods between nation, by relaxing laws that severely prevented foreign buying of currency, and floating the yen. These drivers have helped boost Japan's trade and recovery from its recession. Technology has allowed finances to be traded and communication to be near to instantaneous. This has increased dramatically the amount of FDI into Japan largely thanks to the numerous strategies the Japanese government has taken to promote economic growth and hence development. Finance and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have increased as a direct result of globalisation doubling from $63 billion in 2001 to $144 billion in

To invigorate the economy, Bank of Japan will inject high amount of money in market to hoping the higher wage, higher intensives, and higher consumption that would stimulate the spending on domestic investment. However the statistic show from the time before the Abenomics was implicated and it is vital to notice that these may not reflect the true target industries for Future

Japan ranks as the third largest economy in the world as of 2010. The GDP at current prices in US dollars in Japan was reported at 5068.06 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Japan’s resurgence after World War II has however reached an inflection point in yearly 1989 after the burst of Japan’s asset price and real estate bubbles. As can be seen from the graph below, Japan’s GDP has hovered around the same level through more than 20 years of economic stagnation. The GDP’s slow growth has been exacerbated by the world financial crisis of 2008. A major landmark of Japan’s stagnation has been the BOJ’s fight against deflation.