ФИНАНСОВЫЕ БУРИ НА ТИХОМ ОКЕАНЕ: СОПЕРНИЧЕСТВО США И ЯПОНИИ В БАНКОВСКОЙ СФЕРЕ (1970–2020 ГОДЫ)

Abstract

The article deals with half a century of historical development (from the early 1970s to the present) of one of the key aspects of US-Japan political and economic relations – competition between the banking systems of these countries. Particular focus on this pair of financial forces is due to their leading positions in the global banking industry for many decades. The research is based on the 50-year series of statistical data, as well as national legislation, periodicals and memoirs. It is shown that the leadership of the USA in the banking sector, still retained by the early 1970s, looked increasingly less solid in the face of the rapid advance of Japanese financial groups (which, in turn, was connected with the “Japanese economic miracle” in the sphere of manufacturing). In the 1970s and 1980s, Japan not only surpassed the United States in banking performance, but also became the new dominant in the sector. Nevertheless, during the general slowdown of the Japanese economy over the next two decades, the banking leadership passed to the United States again. In both countries, these dramatic reversals were accompanied by profound reforms of national banking systems, with a clear similarity in the chronology and direction of transformations. Soon after the global recession of 2008–2009, the banking industries of the USA and Japan (closely tied, similar in regulation methods, and comparable in sizes) have entered relatively smooth trajectories. Now, however, both countries are lagging behind the new banking superpower of China.