Japan’s Economic Recession

Abstract

Japan, the world's second largest economy, is experiencing the worst economic crisis since the Second World War and the government is attempting to avoid a return to the "lost decade" of the 1990s when it was stuck in a deflationary spiral. To fight back recession, the Bank of Japan has kept the interest rate to 0.1 %, even lower than Bank of England's 0.5 %. Japan's economy has grown only at an average of 1% annually since 1992. Equally, the country's recovery of 2003-07 did not have any long term effect on the growth.In many respects Japan remains very unique among the developed countries. The country's economic miracle of the 1950s and 1960s has encouraged debate among the scholars to the significance of Japan's economic past. It is widely seen as due to different model of development in areas such as industrial organisation, the role of the state, social institutions and history. Her appeal lies in the dramatic growth rates and economic transformation. Japan was first Asian country to break the western monopoly of modern industrialisation. Less than a generation ago, Japan was viewed an exemplary success story in terms of rapid economic growth and a model to be emulated by other developed and developing countries. Here I will argue that the Japanese economy suffers from severe problems that are not cyclical but structural in nature. Such structural problems are the most serious impediments to economic dynamism and the future long-run economic success of the country.

The Political Economy of Development in Singapore

“…Japan's spectacular economic recovery of a country destroyed in the Second World War, development of a very competitive manufacturing sector and fully modernised society with rising living standards was seen no less than a miracle until the 1990 (Siddiqui, 2009a). It was soon followed by South Korea under Park Chung Hee in the late 1970s and also Taiwan was not far behind in catching up in the process of industrialisation and modernisation (Watkins, 1998).…”

“…witnessed a dramatic surge in East-Asian region (Siddiqui, 2009a). The recent financial crisis of 2008 did affect Singapore adversely and its economy contracted by 0.5 % in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the same period last year.…”

“…The Figure 3 indicates that private consumption in Singapore is much lower than Korea and Japan, although average per capita income is nearly of the same level as Korea (Siddiqui, 2009a). Therefore, on private consumption Singapore may need to focus more on its domestic economy as an engine of growth especially in the wake of the recent global economic crisis (IMF, 2009).…”

The Implications/Reflections of European Economic Integration in Kosovo’s Business Environment Managers’ Attitude towards European Economic Integration Process

“…In addition, this sequential connection amid economic integration and macroeconomics stability is closely linked as long as the entire economic capillary are working properly and not having any possible fluctuation that puts at stake the whole economic chain that certainly spreads the consequences in other economies too (Oksanen & Rilla, 2009). Therefore, there is a broad acknowledgment among scholars point of view that the consequences of a recession that possible hits a particular country its impact can be spread swiftly in other countries that are part of this economic integration and the majority of those countries will face consequences throughout the period that recession hit (Nancy & Geoffrey, 2005;Siddiqui, 2009). This argument does trigger some authors to hold a conservative approach as well as skeptical conviction due to creating an integrated economic market that could be conducive for all countries and, in particular for countries that still are in a transition period and have structural as well as conceptual problems in organizing the whole economic system (Ghosh, 2012;Rustow, 2012).…”

Experiences of Capitalism in India and Pakistan

“…Contrary to IMF and World Bank prescriptions the East Asian economies did not follow neo-liberal economies policies in order to achieve higher GDP growth rates. In the East Asian countries like Japan and South Korea, the state played a crucial role in shaping and manipulating market forces subjecting both capital and labour to ISSN 1948-5433 2011 www.macrothink.org/rae 7 strict regulations (Note 6) (Siddiqui, 2009b;Girdner and Siddiqui, 2008;Amsden, 1989).…”