Author: Akira Kojima, JCER and GRIPS, Tokyo

Japan has faced a number of ‘D’ challenges throughout 2010 that will be increasingly difficult to handle in 2011 unless they are addressed properly and quickly. Time is not by any means a friend in this.

The ‘D’ challenges that Japan currently faces include Deflation, De-population or Demographic changes, public Deficit and Debt, Dilution of the stock market, De-leveraging, Dollar Depreciation, Defense and DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) governance. Read more…

Author: Akira Kojima

Last year was a politically exciting but economically depressing year for Japan. It was the first time in 16 years that the government had been led by a party other than the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but also a year in which Japan suffered its largest decline in GDP in half a century. The year 2010 is to be another difficult and challenging year, with economic deflation necessitating the adoption of a new growth strategy and a July upper-house election which could create a historical watershed of Japan’s politics.

While Japan was not at the epicenter of the global financial crisis, with Japanese banks having better balance sheets and much less exposure to toxic financial commodities, the ensuing collapse in export demand and financial spillovers have plunged Japan’s economy into its severest recession in many decades. Read more…