Japan’s Special Zones for regulatory reform were established in 2003 as an endeavor to enhance nationwide regulatory reforms based on local government initiatives. These Special Zones are not like the free trade zones inviting foreign capital that have been taken on as national projects in...

The report issued by the Labor Standards Act Study Group in November 1978 met with a strong reaction in many quarters. One of the reasons seems to be a point it made regarding factors in wage differentials between male and female workers, namely, that "among the special measures for women,...

The evaluation of the role of the government in economic activities has changed radically in the past ten years or so. A great impetus for such a transformation of the view of this role lies in the sudden deterioration of the fiscal balance, with the fall of the economic growth rate in the...

<DIV>Due to falling fertility rates, the aging of the baby-boom cohort, and increases in life expectancy, the percentage of the population that is elderly is expected to increase rapidly in the United States and Japan over the next two decades. These fourteen essays show that, despite differences in...</div>

<DIV><P>Recent data show wide disparity between Japan and the United States in the effectiveness of their health care systems. Japan spends close to the lowest percentage of its gross domestic product on health care among OECD countries, the United States spends the highest, yet life expectancies in...</p></div>