Japan’s prolonged recession over the last five years has provided the impetus for regulatory reform and industry restructuring. Historically, the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Japan has been small for an economy of its size. The high degree of vertical integration and relatively...

The East Asian financial crisis has highlighted the challenges that international capital movements pose for domestic economic management. Many of the conditions necessary to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks associated with international capital flows were violated in East Asian...

Paul Krugman has argued that the primary source of Japan’s current problems is that the economy faces a liquidity trap. According to Krugman, this has occurred because Japan confronts negative equilibrium real interest rates for a substantial period. To escape the trap, the Bank of Japan must...