Since the end of World War II, the Japanese economy has seen rapid changes and remarkable progress. It has also experienced a bubble economy and period of prolonged stagnation. The book seeks to address three major questions: What kind of changes have taken place in the postwar years? In what sense has there been progress? What lessons can be drawn from the experiences? The book is organized as follows: It begins with an overview of the postwar Japanese economy, using data to highlight historical changes. The four major economic issues in the postwar Japanese economy (economic restoration, rapid economic growth, the bubble economy and current topics) are addressed, with particular focus on the meaning of economic growth and the bubble economy. The next chapters examine the important economic issues for Japan related to a welfare-oriented society, including income distribution, asset distribution, and the relative share of income. Another chapter deals with the household structure of Japan, the pension issue, and the importance of the effect of demographic change on income distribution. The final chapter gives a brief summary, examines quality of life as a lesson of this research, and briefly outlines a proposal for a basic design towards achieving a high satisfaction level society. This book will be of interest to economists, economic historians and political scientists and would be useful as a text for any course on the Japanese economy.
Postwar Japanese Economy
Mitsuhiko Iyoda
Postwar Japanese Economy Lessons of Economic Growth and the Bubble Economy
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Mitsuhiko Iyoda St. Andrew’s University (Momoyama Gakuin University) 1-1 Manabino Izumi-shi, Osaka 594-1198 Japan
[email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-6331-4 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-6332-1 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-6332-1 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2010928699 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Will economics prevent the crises occurring throughout the domestic and world economies? Looking back at the development of economic science, we have never been able to reduce the intrinsic instability of economic societies. However, we can analyze the fundamental cause of crises and suggest countermeasures for relaxing or solving the cause. It will be impossible in most cases to prevent the negative aspects of capitalism. We have not always prepared effectively for the downside of every economic problem, particularly new types of serious economic phenomena. Unexpected problems have appeared one after another. In addition, there are wars and tyranny, which destroy economic performance in the world. We trust in the development of economic science to remedy the maladies and to solve serious economic problems and contribute to enhancing the satisfaction level of humankind. Viewing some lessons from the Japanese expe