Table of Contents
Preface
Preliminary Notes
Acknowledgements
I Background
1 An Introduction to the Japanese Economy
2 Historical Background of the Japanese Economy
- The Tokugawa (Edo) Era: 1603-1868
- Foreign Pressure and the Fall of Tokugawa
- From the Meiji Restoration to World War II
- Summary
- Appendix A: Case Studies
- Appendix B: Japan as an Example for Developing Countries
- Appendix C: Sources of Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
II Economic Analysis
3 Economic Growth
- Analyzing Sources of Economic Growth
- Growth in Aggregate Demand
- Reform and the Beginning of Strong Growth: 1945-1950
- Rapid Growth: 1950-1973
- The Slowdown
- Summary
- Appendix: Guide to GNP Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
4 Business Cycles and Economic Policies
- Dating of Business Cycles
- Regularities among Business Cycles
- Postwar Business Cycles in Japan
- Theory and Estimation
- Political Business Cycles
- Summary
- Appendix: Theories of Business Cycles
- Notes
- Bibliography
5 Financial Markets and Monetary Policy
- Institutional Characteristics
- Japan's Financial Markets in the 1950s and the 1960s
- Disequilibrium in Financial Markets
- Changes in the 1970s
- The Short-Term Financial Market
- Deregulation
- The "Mistake" of Japanese Monetary Policy: 1971-1975
- A Comparison of Japanese and American Monetary Policies, 1975-1989
- Summary
- Appendix A: Guide to Financial Data
- Appendix B: Theories of Monetary Policy
- Notes
- Bibliography
6 Public Finance and Fiscal Policies
- The Tax Structure
- Government Spending
- The Rise and Fall of the Government Deficit, 1975-1989
- Ricardian Neutrality
- Summary
- Appendix: Guide to Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
7 Industrial Structure and Policy
- Industrial Structure
- Industrial Policy
- Anti-Monopoly Law and Depression Cartels
- Appendix: Sources of Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
8 The Labor Market
- Basic Statistics
- Conventional Wisdom
- Lifetime Employment and Seniority Wages
- Enterprise Unions
- Do the Japanese Work Too Much?
- The Female Labor Force
- Bonuses and the Share Economy
- The Spring Offensive [Shunto]
- Why Is the Japanese Unemployment Rate So Low and Inflexible?
- Summary
- Appendix A: Concepts and Theories of Unemployment
- Appendix B: Guide to Japanese Labor Statistics
- Notes
- Bibliography
9 Saving and the Cost of Capital
- Definitions and Japanese Data
- US-Japan Comparison
- Data from a Cross-Sectional Survey
- Stylized Facts
- Why Is the Japanese Saving Rate So High?
- The Cost of Capital and Investment
- Appendix A: Guide to Data on Consumption and Saving
- Appendix B: The Saving-Investment Identity
- Appendix C: The Life-Cycle Hypothesis of Saving
- Notes
- Bibliography
10 International Trade
- Trade Structure
- Exchange-Rate Adjustment and the J-Curve Effect
- New Trade Theory and Trade Policy
- Intra-Industry Trade
- Summary
- Notes
- Bibliography
11 International Finance
- From the Bretton Woods System to the Floating-Rate Regime
- Japanese Capital Controls
- Covered Interest Parity
- A Yen for Yen?
- Exchange-Rate Dynamics and News
- News Analysis: One Year after the Plaza Agreement
- The Target Zone
- Concluding Remarks
- Appendix: The Forward Market and the Futures Market
- Notes
- Bibliography
III Contemporary Topics
12 US-Japan Economic Conflicts
- The "Japan as Number One" Syndrome
- American Frustrations
- The Super-301 Clause and Structural Impediments Initiatives
- The Use of "Gaiatsu"
- Concluding Remarks
- Notes
- Bibliography
13 The Distribution System
- The Conventional Wisdom
- Measures of Efficiency in the Distribution Sector
- Concluding Remarks
- Notes
- Bibliography
14 Asset Prices: Land and Equities
- An International Comparison
- Evidence from Land-Price Time Series
- Policy Implications
- Why Are Japanese Stock Prices So High?
- Concluding Remarks
- Appendix: Guide to Data
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
