Studies comparing regional income in Japan before and after World War II have frequently drawn a picture of radical change from an economy characterized by large regional disparities to one characterized by small regional disparities. This paper comes to a very different conclusion. Based on...

Although Japan experienced a significant jump in inward foreign direct investment (FDI) around the turn of the millennium, the level of inward FDI penetration remains much lower than in many other countries. Looking at the factors that determine Japan's attractiveness as an investment...

As Japan's financial system moves toward a more market oriented one, depositor discipline is expected to play a larger role in the monitoring of the country's banks. Relying on detailed survey data on households' bank switching behavior matched with banks' financial data, we examine households'...

The past few decades have seen a significant rise in foreign direct investment(FDI) worldwide. While Japanese companies have actively contributed to this trend, FDI in Japan continues to be much lower than in other countries. This paper explores the history of both outward and inward FDI in...

This paper shows that foreign direct investment (FDI), production and trade networks have been a principal driver of East Asian integration. A key element in this has been the role of production sharing, in which different stages of the production process are dispersed across countries in the...

The 1990s have been a decade of minimal growth for the Japanese economy. Examining this record from a growth accounting perspective, this paper argues that a major factor underlying Japan's disappointing growth performance in recent years has been a marked slow-down in total factor productivity...

Having historically received very little foreign direct investment, Japan has experienced a substantial increase in such inflows in recent years. This paper analyzes the impact of the growing presence of foreign firms on the Japanese economy through detailed case studies on the automobile,...

In recent years, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Japan has jumped to unprecedented levels. This paper examines the underlying reasons, looking at both the international factors - the global boom in FDI and mergers & acquisitions(M&A) during 1998-2000 - and domestic regulatory, structural and...