what's wrong with Japan

Ian Murray seamus2001 at home.com
Wed Aug 22 18:39:08 PDT 2001



> Does anyone here on the list know what is wrong with Japanese
economy? Why
> has it been in recession so long? I've read all of Paul Krugman's
essays on
> this subject, but his opinion has changed over the years and no one
of his
> essays jumps out at me as having the final answer. Can anyone point
to other
> resoucres I might study? Perhaps there is a good Japanese economist
who is
> both insightful and has been translated into English?
>
> --Lawrence Krubner
========== < http://csf.colorado.edu/bcas/ > Might give you some clues if you fish around. Also...

< http://www.sup.org > Divided Sun MITI and the Breakdown of Japanese High-Tech Industrial Policy, 1975-1993 Scott Callon

"Callon has done his research with exemplary thoroughness. . . . He draws extensively on Japanese-language documents, newspapers, and government papers. But what makes Callon's evaluation particularly worthwhile is that it is also based on interviews with some 100 Japanese researchers, managers, and bureaucrats. . . . From this wealth of inside information, Callon concludes that it is companies, not government bureaucracies that have been at the heart of Japan's stunning postwar ascent." -The New Scientist

"Callon's findings are extraordinary. . . . It is essential for anyone trying to get a little closer to the core of what makes Japan tick." -The Japan Times

Divided Sun is the story of the methods and machinations that have driven Japan's high-tech industrial policies over the last two turbulent decades. It focuses on MITI and Japan's giant electronics firms, and forces a re-evaluation of MITI's strategy since the 1970's.

Studies in International Policy

Available Now pp. 240 paper isbn: 0-8047-3154-3 $18.95 m

An Anticlassical Political-Economic Analysis A Vision for the Next Century Yasusuke Murakami Translated, with an Introduction, by Kozo Yamamura

In his final work, one that distills decades of research and thought, a distinguished economic thinker turned social scientist and philosopher confronts three crucial questions facing the world at the end of the century: How and in what form can a harmonious and stable post-cold war world order be created? How can the world maintain the economic performance necessary for the well-being of people while minimizing international economic conflicts and further deterioration of the world's environment? What must be done to safeguard the freedoms of all peoples?

In attempting to answer these questions, Murakami criticizes classical political-economic analysis and offers his own "anticlassical" analyses and visions for the next century. By classical political-economic analysis, Murakami refers to analyses of power politics based on the nation-state system and to classical and neoclassical economic analysis which holds that unimpeded competition and free trade are fundamental bases for increasing wealth for the benefit of all. Murakami's anticlassical stance takes the form of a new, intellectually integrated and reasoned concept called "polymorphic liberalism," which argues that traditional

"progressivism"-the belief that humans have an ultimate unique path on which they will reach an ideal social and political-economic system-can no longer meet today's challenges.

At his death Yasusuke Murakami was director of the Center for Global Communications at the International University of Japan. Kozo Yamamura is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Washington.

Available Now pp. 476 Frontispiece paper isbn: 0-8047-3519-0 $25.95 m cloth isbn: 0-8047-2646-9 $66.00 s A Vision of a New Liberalism? Critical Essays on Murakami's Anticlassical Analysis Edited by Kozo Yamamura

In 1992, a year before his death, Yasusuke Murakami published in Japanese An Anti-Classical Political-Economic Analysis: A Vision for the Next Century (English translation, Stanford, 1996). A work that distilled decades of research and thought by a distinguished economic theorist turned social scientist and philosopher, it sold more than 25,000 copies in Japan despite its highly scholarly nature. The book enjoyed such immediate recognition because it offered a sanguine vision for the community of nations and because Murakami's vision was supported by acute insights on, and seminal analyses of the crucial issues relating to economic growth, equality, peace, and cultural diversity we face at the end of the twentieth century.

This volume presents nine essays-by five political scientists, three economists, and a historian-that critically evaluate the vision and analyses in Murakami's book by focusing on his two key contributions. The first is "polymorphic liberalism," a new type of liberalism that reflects the needs of both developed and developing economies and the realities of the diversity of cultures; the second is "developmentalism," a long-term, multifaceted policy intervention in catch-up economic growth. The volume also contains, as appendixes, two essays that further a more complete understanding of Murakami's book: a brief summary of Murakami's "new economics," his replacement for neoclassical economics, and a discussion of England as the first developmentalist success.

All the essays deal, in one way or another, with Murakami's answers to such questions as: What new world order must be created to best provide peace and security to nations? What shared beliefs or principles can help evolve this new world order that is menaced by regional wars and serious international confrontations caused by political, economic, and ethnic-cultural conflicts? How will the character of industrialization change, and what must we do to best respond to changes that are likely to increase political and economic interdependence among nations? And what roles must the United States, the European Union, and Japan play to secure world peace, to maintain an orderly international trade regime, and to reduce disparity in nations' income and wealth?

Kozo Yamamura is the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Washington. He is the translator of the English edition of An Anticlassical Political-Economic Analysis.

Available Now pp. 312 6 tables, 5 figures cloth isbn: 0-8047-3150-0 $51.00 s



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