Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Why Japan’s economy is still stumbling

By Derek Scissors and J.D Foster - posted Monday, 2 March 2009


A weak Japanese economy is again making Americans nervous. For the fourth quarter of 2008, Japan reported a painful 12.7 per cent annualised drop in GDP - a low point in a history of disappointing economic performance that stretches back to the early 1990s.

The extent of Japanese stagnation has been understated - much more than a decade has been and is still being lost. The relevance of this stagnation to America's current economic crisis therefore goes beyond how the Japanese handled their financial crisis almost 20 years ago, to a continued failure to revitalise the Japanese economy in sustainable fashion. This traces back to Japan's failure to move its economy away from structural reliance on exports and trade surpluses. The US has the mirror problem: a reliance on imports, including imported savings.

A heated and important debate is underway as to how America should respond to its financial crisis and the deepening recession. Another lesson from Japan is that, if the US wants to secure long-term prosperity and the future of American leadership, it must also be concerned about the next two decades. If the US does not fundamentally change its tax, spending, and regulatory policies, this nation risks replaying Japan's two lost decades, with all that entails.

Advertisement

The loss of the 1990s

On December 29, 1989, Japan was completing the fourth decade of its economic ascent. The Tokyo stock market set yet another record, and Japan was the world's second largest economy. Real GDP growth had easily surpassed that in the US the previous four years, the previous decade, and the previous four decades. The country was not only wealthy; it was dynamic. Many named Japan the crown prince of global economic leadership, replacing an America that could no longer compete.

A decade later, this all seemed a strange dream. Japan's retreat from the economic pinnacle has been illustrated in many ways. The loss was less one of wealth - Japan is still rich - than of the dynamism displayed for nearly two generations and the utter destruction of any aspiration to global economic leadership.

The stock bubble popped in 1990, followed by real estate in 1991. The impact of these bubbles on GDP growth was seen clearly in 1992. By itself, this was unremarkable. As has been made all too clear, financial bubbles are common. What sets Japan apart is that its relative weakness was most stark a full seven years after the Nikkei began its swan dive.

Data on the gap between actual output and potential output in Japan and in the US indicate the difference in their comparative performance was insignificant from 1991 to 1994. It is in 1995, five years after the initial shock, that comparative Japanese performance sharply deteriorates.

Scissors gap between potential and actual output

Advertisement

The low point in terms of that performance is 1997, but the gap between actual and potential output indicates a much weaker performance in Japan than in the US as late as 2000. The lost decade is not a tale of excessively slow recovery from financial shock; it is a story of initial weakness followed by extended slump due to a failing economic model.

This shapes the lessons that should be drawn from Japan's economic woes. There is consensus that Japan failed in maintaining financial transparency in the early part of the decade. There is no equivalent consensus on the ineffectiveness of the profligate use of fiscal stimulus: As the slump actually worsened as time passed, it is difficult to see the benefit of the stimulus. The standard response is to cite 1997, when Japan moved off net stimulus, as undermining the effort. It is at best a weak argument that seven years of colossal debt-financed spending was a clear failure but eight would have done the trick.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. All

First published by public policy research institute The Heritage Foundation on February 23, 2009.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Authors

Derek Scissors, PhD, is Research Fellow in Asia Economic Policy in the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation in the United States.

J.D. Foster, Ph.D., is Norman B. Ture Senior Fellow in the Economics of Fiscal Policy in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, at The Heritage Foundation. He works as Derek Scissor's research assistant.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Derek Scissors
All articles by J.D Foster

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment Comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy