Some characteristics of the Japanese economy at the turn of the 21st Century

Tömpe, István

Keywords: economic growth, deflation, agricultural production, farm incomes, food consumption

For decades Japan and the Far-East achieved the admiration of the rest of the world primarily for their above average, rapid economic development. In the 1990’s the Japanese economy so far consider as the engine of the east moved into a peculiar position: growth has declined to a large extent, even stagnated for an extended period of time and general inflation has been replaced by deflation. These phenomena have once again focused expert attention on the Japanese economy in trying to understand the causes and find remedies. The renewal of Japan’s economic conditions is determined decisively by the factors that in the past decade have been considered the causes of malaise, e.g. the economic prices of deflation for an extended period: decline of domestic savings due to deflation, therefore faltering investments, stagnating domestic consumption, communal (government) spending unaffecting (not increasing) the efficiency of economy, declining balance of payments in foreign trading, inappropriate foreign investments, and neglect of economic reforms. It would appear the Japanese agri-business will not play a positive part in the process of renewal, rather it will be a source of further economic difficulties.

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