Despite the fact that Japan is an earthquake-prone country and Japanese people are known to be highly risk averse, less than half of Japanese households are insured against earthquake risk. Based on a survey among experts in the field, the article gives an overview of earthquake insurance...

In the post-bubble era, Japan is going through major structural upheavals and the relevance of the five perspectives presented here on the implications of these changes for the Japanese employment system can hardly be overstated. The institutions and practices of the Japanese employment system...

Statistical analysis indicates that Japan trades less than most other OECD countries even after controlling for economic and natural factors. Border barriers to trade, domestic regulations, peculiar national standards, and business practices cannot explain Japan’s low trade dependency. The...