Japanese Economic Policy Research Articles

An analysis of Japanese economic policy

An analysis of Japanese economic policy

Climate change and Japanese economic policy uncertainty: Asymmetric analysis

Japan has always formulated various corresponding policies in response to climate change. This paper explores the asymmetric impact of climate change on Japan's economic policy uncertainty (JEPU) by comparing text-based indicators (climate policy uncertainty, CPU) and physical indicators (El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO). The asymmetric Granger test finds that CPU has no significant impact on JEPU. However, positive ENSO shocks can lead to an increase in JEPU. Different ENSO shocks may differently drive JEPU in all runs. Thus, this kind of text-based indicator may not be appropriate when exploring the impact of climate change on Japanese economic policy.

Current trends in Japan’s economic cooperation with the SCO member states

The paper considers the Japanese economic policy towards the SCO member states, which is built on the basis of Japans long-term interests in the Asian region. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is quite diverse: some countries (India, China) are moving in the high-speed segment of the world economy and have annual GDP growth (excluding the fall in 2020 caused by the pandemic) at the level of 5% or more, while others (for example, Russia) are in the low-speed segment. This forms a different content of Japans foreign economic policy in relation to the individual SCO states, but there are also a number of general trends due to the current structure of Japanese exports/imports. For more than a decade, Japan has been facing a difficult task of overcoming prolonged economic stagnation not only through internal reforms, but also through expanding the borders of its foreign trade activities, and the SCO countries with their capacious domestic markets experiencing a shortage of high-tech products are among the priority areas for Japanese exports. Therefore, the urgent content of Japanese foreign economic policy in the SCO area is of considerable scientific interest.

The Economic Research of E. F. Penrose in Japan during 1925–30: The ‘Undelivered’ Message to Pre-war Japanese Society

This paper addresses the economic research conducted by Ernest Francis Penrose (1895–1984) in Nagoya, Japan, from 1925 to 1930. After graduating from Cambridge University, he relocated to Japan as a lecturer and began creating the first indices in Japanese history of the physical volume of production, the significance of which was only recognized in the world after the First World War. Penrose was a pioneer in his contribution to the development of quantitative analysis in Japan. His analysis also included practical critical remarks and significant perspectives on Japanese economic policy shortly before the war, although they had no actual influence on the Japanese government at the time. Utilizing his articles published during his stay in Japan, this study sheds light on his contributions, mostly unrecorded in the history of the development of economics in Japan.

The Characteristics of Jongbang-village sericulture at Jeollanam-do Province during Japanese Colonial Rule: Focused on Gokseong-gun & Damyang-gun Jongbang-village

This study investigated the characteristics and changes of Jeongbang-village silk culture Jeollanam-do Province during Japanese Colonial Rule with a focus in on Gokseong-gun & Damyang-gun Jeongbang-village. The results of the study are as follows. First, after Japanese occupation, it changed from a traditional silkworm species, the Joseon Silkworms and the mulberry tree to an improved Japanese species. Japan established a silk spinning mill called Jongyeon Textile factory in Gwangju and Jeongbang Village was formed in poor rural areas. Second, the way of village management consisted of buying a large number of land for mulberry plans and creating mulberry fields as a cheap way to utilize the labor force for women and men in rural areas. Third, since the end of the Japanese colonial era, mulberry fields in Jeongbang villages which the Japanese left, were sold at a cheap price to Koreans. After the Korean War, the Korean government’s efforts to modernize the silkworm industry resulted in a continuous plan to increase the number of silkworms. The impact of government policies has also increased the production of silkworms in these areas. However, since the early 1980s, Korean companies have been affected by Japanese economic policies and dumping by China that has resulted in in a sharp decline in their production. In the case of Gokseong-gun and Damyang, the production of silk products was halted and switched to other crops in the early 1990s when the farming industry began to decline.

Do oil shocks predict economic policy uncertainty?

Oil price fluctuations have influential role in global economic policies for developed as well as emerging countries. I investigate the role of international oil prices disintegrated into structural (i) oil supply shock, (ii) aggregate demand shock and (iii) oil market specific demand shocks, based on the work of Kilian (2009) using structural VAR framework on economic policies uncertainty of sampled markets. Economic policy uncertainty, due to its non-linear behavior is modeled in a regime switching framework with disintegrated structural oil shocks. Our results highlight that Indian, Spain and Japanese economic policy uncertainty responds to the global oil price shocks, however aggregate demand shocks fail to induce any change. Oil specific demand shocks are significant only for China and India in high volatility state.

The Economic Policy of Japanese Naval Government in South Sulawesi in the Second World War 1942 -1945

The Japanese economic policy in South Sulawesi seemed to have different policies when compared to the other colonies in Indonesia. It was indicated by leadership typology of Japanese Navy which based in Makassar, Bukittinggi, and Java. In South Sulawesi, the policy was more focused on the compliance of logistic materials by strengthening on clothing industry, plantation of cotton and castor oil, and fisheries. The important policy of the army was the agricultural massive production sector to support the war. In addition, the agricultural and industrial sectors were also developed such as salt, castor oil, textile, silk, handicrafts and the like. Those phenomena analyzed by historical method. It used archives such as Japanese occupation reports in Makassar, Romusha archives in Makassar, and Japanese local politic documents in South Sulawesi. The reports on Japanese economic activities in South Sulawesi were also consulted. Information from magazines and newspapers were also taken such as Pemberitaan Makassar, Bintang Timoer, Sinar Baroe, Soeara Asia, Hong Po, and Pemandangan. In addition to, it has complied oral history with direct interviews to the people who are still alive and experienced on the era. The Japanese economic policies in South Sulawesi influenced great changes in new economic structure on the emergence of the diversification of popular-based commodity especially clothing and foodstuff during the war. That was the reason why people in South Sulawesi directed to execute intensification of agriculture in a professional productive manner supported by communal industrial policy.

三和良一著, 『戦間期日本の経済政策史的研究』, 東京大学出版会, 2003年, xii+372頁

三和良一著, 『戦間期日本の経済政策史的研究』, 東京大学出版会, 2003年, xii+372頁

Impact of economic policy on international tourism demand: the case of Abenomics

Since the 2008 global financial crisis and resulting recession, many countries have been following unconventional monetary policies. Little information is known on how these policies may influence tourism demand. This study starts to fill this gap by investigating the impact of the Japanese economic policy known as Abenomics on South Koreans’ travel to Japan, the largest inbound market for Japan. Per capita gross domestic product, relative prices, and exchange rates are significant determinants of Japanese inbound tourism. As these variables have been influenced by Abenomics, one can infer that Abenomics is associated with a significant increase in tourist arrivals from South Korea. Findings highlight the importance of government economic policy in stimulating international tourism demand through its impact on the economy.

Osłabienie powiązań gospodarczych Japonii z Unią Europejską w latach 2007‒2014

Artykuł nie zawiera abstraktu w języku polskim.

On Target: An Analysis of Abenomics

Introduction can one do when the economy has been experiencing stagnation and falling prices for two decades? Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes that his response, the three-pronged Abenomics is the correct answer that can pull Japan out of the “Lost Decades”. Japan and the world are looking at this economic experiment with much intent, and this paper aims to answer the question on everyone’s mind: “Is it working?” This paper attempts to do this by providing a preliminary assessment of these policies. Japanese economic policy is an issue worth looking into for several reasons. Firstly, Japan’s macroeconomic environment is an unprecedentedly challenging one; stagnation for over two decades, a deflationary period longer than that of the Great Depression of 1873 (Metzler, 2013), and a pessimistic corporate outlook. All this is further exacerbated by a diminishing demographic dividend. Previous policy responses have been criticized as being insufficiently aggressive in tackling Japan’s economic woes. This is where Abenomics comes in; three massive stimulus packages, aggressive monetary easing neither the US Federal Reserve nor the European Central Bank has dared attempt, and structural reforms to address underlying long term issues in the Japanese economy. If Abenomics works out, it will be credited with one of the most spectacular economic comebacks in history. But Abenomics also has implications beyond the Japanese archipelago. Developed countries are fearing that they themselves will experience their own lost decade in the aftermath of the recession of 2007. Policymakers in economies such as the United States and the European Union have crafted policies which share similarities with Shinzo Abe’s package. Should Abe’s project fail, doubt will settle on their own policy responses as well. Will Abenomics success lead to its emulation in other countries? Or will it end up being a precautionary tale of macroeconomic folly? This is the question this essay tries to answer.

Japan’s experiences under the Bretton Woods System: capital controls and fixed exchange rate

Japan joined the IMF in August 1952 (under Article 14) and GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) in 1955. Japan's ‘high growth era’, the period from 1955 to the outbreak of the first oil crisis in 1973-74, coincided with the liberal international framework of the IMF and GATT. The course of Japanese economic policy during the post-war era has been largely determined by its balance of payments position. Japan's overall economic experience shows that the direct and indirect resistance to radical reforms resulted in maintaining the low level of the exchange rate and contributed to economic growth.

The International History of Japanese Economic Thought and Policy, 1945-2000

The International History of Japanese Economic Thought and Policy, 1945-2000

Foreign factors in Taiwan's economic transformation

This paper aims to explore the foreign influences on Taiwan's economic transformation over the past 40 years. While exports have always been important in sustaining Taiwan's economic growth, the driving force behind exports has changed from inward investment to outward investment. The analysis carried out is from an international political economy perspective and takes a historical overview. It argues that the US, Japan and China pursued economic policies based on their own economic interests. These foreign governments’ economic policies together with their entrepreneurs’ business interests are the more important variables for shaping Taiwan's economic structure. During the 1960s, without the US's financial guarantees for American MNCs and security guarantees for the island, the KMT's foreign investment promotion policy would not have been as successful as it was when Taiwan faced a military threat from China. The US and Japanese economic policies changed, and since the 1970s competition between their businesses in the world market has integrated Taiwan into a regional production network. Subsequent to the Sino-US rapprochement, the US gradually opened up its market towards China. With America's rising trade barriers against Taiwanese-made products, Taiwanese entrepreneurs found profits by investing in China. Even though the Taiwanese Government tried hard to pull back the mounting outward investment in China, it was unable to achieve it. In contrast to the traditional point of view, this paper offers insights into the economic interaction between first the US and Japan and later between the US and China that resulted in Taiwan's economic transformation.

A new challenge to economic science: Global model simulation

The FUGI ( Futures of Global Interdependence) global modeling system has been developed as a scientific policy modeling and future simulation tool of providing global information to the human society and finding out possibilities of policy co-ordination among countries in order to achieve sustainable development of the global economy co-existing on the planet Earth in the ever changing universe. The FUGI global model M200 classifies the world into 200 countries/regions where each national/regional model is globally interdependent. Each national/regional model has nine subsystems as population, foods, energy, environment, economic development, peace and security, human right, healthcare and quality of life (IT revolution). This is a super complex dynamic system model using integrated multidisciplinary systems analysis where number of structural equations is over 170,000. Economic model as a core includes major economic variables such as production of GDP, employment, expenditures of GDP, income distribution, prices, money, interest rates and financial assets, government finance, international balance of payments, international finance, foreign exchange rates and development indicators. The purpose of this article is twofold, namely to provide information on a new frontier science of economics: global model simulation as well as appropriate policy exercise for sustainable development of the interdependent global economy. The world economy is facing “green” energy revolution to change from fossil to create alternative energy and energy saving technology against sky rocketing higher oil prices. Japan takes a lead in this field of technology innovation. Under such circumstances, Japan should take an initiative to create a new peaceful world through not only harmonized adjustments of Japanese economic policy but also wise cosmic mind to promote human solidarity with the ever changing nature will be desirable to adjust orbit of the fluctuated global economy. Japan should challenge for a new strategy to accelerate economic growth rates by “ CO 2 reducing environment investment” based on technology innovations.

Transformation in Japanese Economic Policy from "Structural Adjustment Policy" to "Structural Reform Policy"(<SPECIAL ISSUE>Has Japanese Capitalism Changed?)

Transformation in Japanese Economic Policy from "Structural Adjustment Policy" to "Structural Reform Policy"(<SPECIAL ISSUE>Has Japanese Capitalism Changed?)

Impact of the Zaibatsu on Japan's Political Economy: Pre and Post War Period

Prewar Japanese economic policy, as a whole, cannot be understood without some knowledge of the enterprises that were being built up by the mighty business groups popularly known as the “Zaibatsu”. Zaibatsu played a vital part in the economic rise of Japan, and they had come to occupy a position in the Japanese economy for which there was no parallel elsewhere in modern times. Their importance was not limited to the economic sphere, for they had made their influence felt in politics.

Democracy without competition in Japan: opposition failure in a one-party dominant state

Despite its democratic structure, Japan's government has been dominated by a single party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1955. This book offers an explanation for why, even in the face of great dissatisfaction with the LDP, no opposition party has been able to offer itself as a credible challenger in Japan. Understanding such failure is important for many reasons, from its effect on Japanese economic policy to its implications for what facilitates democratic responsiveness more broadly. The principal explanations for opposition failure in Japan focus on the country's culture and electoral system. This book offers a new interpretation, arguing that a far more plausible explanation rests on the predominance in Japan of clientelism, combined with a centralized government structure and electoral protection for groups that benefit from clientelism. While the central case in the book is Japan, the analysis is also comparative and applies the framework cross-nationally.

R. Miwa, Japanese Economic Policy in the Modernizing Period

R. Miwa, Japanese Economic Policy in the Modernizing Period

The US, Japan, and trade liberalization: from bilateralism to regional multilateralism to regionalism+

Japan’s foreign economic policy has undergone two crucial changes in the past decade and a half: first the shift from predominantly US–Japan bilateralism to the addition of regional multilateralism, and then the recent extension to regional bilateral FTAs for the first time. To what extent did these shifts in Japan’s behavior in the trade area represent a deep shift in the purposes and goals of Japanese foreign economic policy? This article looks at how American policy changes and developments in the US–Japan relationship, and economic globalization, produced the changes in Japan’s domestic policy thinking and process that led to these outcomes and to the particular pattern of development of these policy shifts. Using a simple version and modification of ‘strategic interaction theory’ it concludes that despite recent arguments that the shift to bilateral FTAs may presage a turning point toward an Asian bloc, instead it reflects a remarkable continuity in Japan’s foreign economic goals in the post-war period. Although an important change, it indicates only using new means to adapt to the changed regional economic security environment after the East Asian financial crisis and the débâcle of trade liberalization in EVSL in APEC. Japan now has a full ‘multi-tiered’ range of trade alternatives to advance its constant goals of maintaining a US ‘military shield’ and promoting its own ‘economic sword’ in the region.