Word: japanes
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...most of the past 20 years, Japan has been in a state of political and economic paralysis. Ever since its property-and-stock-price bubble collapsed in the early 1990s, the economy has teetered on the edge of recession, occasionally tumbling into one. With one exception (Junichiro Koizumi), the country has been captained by a series of leaders who seemed content to reluctantly repair the economy so that it doesn't outright sink, but not enough for it to return to the high-flying days of yesteryear. What I find most baffling about Japan is how a nation...
...Paralysis isn't unique to Japan; it appears to be a common affliction throughout the developed world. But by looking at Japan, we can get a good idea of the damage it can do. Unwilling to make hard choices, the government simply threw taxpayer money around, attempting to keep people employed without fundamentally changing the economy. The result is government debt approaching 200% of GDP. Overly protected at home, Japan Inc. has missed out on the globalization game; its companies, unable to adapt to a changing world, are losing global market share to more nimble competitors. The nation that once...
...Sendai, looking warily across the Pacific toward my home country, I shuddered to think America was heading Japan's way. Everyone in Washington knows what problems the nation faces, but there is a Japan-like inability to take the necessary action. The broken U.S. health care system is an embarrassment, yet efforts to change it have been stymied for almost as long as moves to revive Japan's economy. The government's finances are deteriorating as politicians refuse to make the hard decisions on what the country does and does not need. The education system requires far more attention...
...sources of this paralysis are somewhat different in the two countries. In Japan, a combination of highly constraining social patterns, consensus-based decision-making and an ossified political process have suppressed new ideas and made the country resistant to change. In the U.S., there is no shortage of fresh thinking, debate and outrage - the paralysis is caused by a lack of consensus on how problems should be tackled. There are too many people in positions of power who seem to believe no real change is necessary, or that it can just be put off, for political purposes, to another...
...rich nation like the U.S., it's easy to be fooled into thinking there's always more time for problems to get solved. So it has been in Japan. The Japanese are wealthy enough that they don't suffer too much from the prolonged period of stunted growth. But Japan also stands as a warning to those who think tough decisions can be delayed indefinitely. Japan's public finally seems ready for something new. Voters last year tossed out the Liberal Democrats, who had governed almost uninterrupted since 1955. The new sheriff in town is Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama...