Japanese Financial Deregulation — the 1980s

Abstract

If miracles fill us with wonder, they can also breed envy when their beneficial glow falls outside our reach. Economic miracles are no exception. For Japan, this fall from grace inspired several observers to re-evaluate whether the Japanese approach to the economy is really distinctive or whether it has all along followed traditional wisdom. Does one gain a better grasp of what drives the Japanese economy by focusing on the ways it differs from textbook economic approaches? Of course, research concerns are not really unaffected by several burning problems in the economy. The fact remains that the rising economic power of Japan during the 1980s encouraged research into that sustained era of growth. If Japan could succeed against more developed economic powers, they must be doing something radically ‘different’ from their Western competitors.