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The Bubble Economy and the Lost Decade: Learning from the Japanese Economic Experience. William M. Tsutsui University of Kansas. Plan for this Session. Japan postwar “miracle” economy (1950s to early 1970s) The “Bubble Economy” (late 1980s)
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The Bubble Economyand the Lost Decade:Learning from the Japanese Economic Experience William M. Tsutsui University of Kansas
Plan for this Session • Japan postwar “miracle” economy (1950s to early 1970s) • The “Bubble Economy” (late 1980s) • The “Lost Decade” (1990 to early 2000s, or still ongoing?) • What did the Japanese do wrong? • What can we learn from Japan’s experience?
The Elements of Growth • Trade policy, human resources, the “free ride” • Open world trading system • Entrepreneurship • Consumption • The bureaucracy, “industrial policy” and the “developmental state” (Chalmers Johnson)
Unique Structural Features • Japanese Employment System: lifetime employment, seniority system, company unions • Keiretsu • Corporate finance and banking system • The dual economy
Unique Structural Features • Japanese-style management • Japanese democracy: the Liberal Democratic Party • Social consensus on growth
How did it get so bad? • Inept public policy • Corruption • Greed • The belief that Japan was somehow “different”
Nikkei Average (Tokyo Stock Exchange)Source: http://brual.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/nikkei-average-historical-graph.png
Japanese Real Estate PricesSource: http://m1.smartmoney.com/tradecraft/images/1107-graphic.gif
Japanese GDP Growth RateSource: http://www.treasury.gov.au/documents/817/images/05_article_4-18.gif
Source: http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/images/bg1530cht5.gif
Source: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/japan_interest_rates.jpg
So what went wrong? • Government incompetence • Lack of decisive action? • Political failures
Japanese Prime Ministers, 1989-2001
So what went wrong? • Structural peculiarites of the Japanese economic system • What about the Japanese people? Should they have spent more and demanded more?
Enjo kosai “compensated dating” • Hikikomori “acute social withdrawal” • Tokokyohi “school refusal”
Source: http://www.japan-zone.com/features/pix/005/population_aging.gif
What lessons should we learn? • Greed is universal. • Hindsight is 20/20. • The market can’t solve everything. • The government can’t solve everything. • Quick fixes probably won’t fix it. • Watch out for the social fallout of economic distress.