The Japanese Economy Reconsidered

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. The Long Downturn in the Japanese Economy

   • Makoto Itoh

   Pages 1-29

3. Information Technologies and Competitive Restructuring of Capitalism

   • Makoto Itoh

   Pages 30-48

4. Changes in Industrial Structure and Family Life

   • Makoto Itoh

   Pages 49-75

5. The Burst of the Bubble and the Political Economy of the 1990s Depression

   • Makoto Itoh

   Pages 76-105

6. Asia and Japan in the Process of Globalization

   • Makoto Itoh

   Pages 106-133

7. Concluding Remarks

   • Makoto Itoh

   Pages 134-137

8. Back Matter

   Pages 138-153

   PDF

The Japanese economy has shown paradoxical changes. Its successes in forming a company-centred society generated the long downturn toward zero-growth capitalism. Successful spread of information technologies resulted in deterioration of economic life among working people and a wide fall in birth rate. At the zenith of the Japanese model of company system, a huge bubble swelled, so as to prepare a prolonged depression throughout the 1990s. Neoliberalism with spiral reversal of capitalist development toward more competitive markets rather promoted difficulties among people. A lucid reconsideration of neoliberalism through concrete Japanese experiences.

• bibliography
• capitalism
• depression
• economic growth
• economic policy
• globalization
• growth
• Japan
• political economy

'Makoto Itoh has produced a masterful volume on the crisis of Japan. This concise and complete work by one of the 20th century's great political economists provides a sure-handed account of Japan's situation as it enters the 21st. He incisively summarizes the historical background and competing schools of thought on what ails Japan. Itoh argues that Japan's problems arise from both a crisis of social reproduction and the breakdown of the international economic order. This volume will take its place as one of author's enduring achievements.' - Gary Dymski, Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside

• Kokugakuin University, Tokyo, Japan

  Makoto Itoh

MAKOTO ITOH is Professor of Economics at Kokugakuin University, Tokyo, and Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo. His books include The Basic Theory of Capitalism, The World Economics Crisis, Japanese Capitalism and Political Economy for Socialism.

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