ABSTRACT

Introduction It seems that the last decade of the twentieth century turned out to be a great turning point for both the world economy and the Japanese economy. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the two economies have not necessarily been on the same page. While Japan suffered from a long period of stagnation after the burst of the Bubble Economy, the world economy surged into the phase of globalization that was powered especially by the finance-led growth of the USA and the so-called export-led industrialization of China. The trend of globalization, though having experienced a sort of setback by the economic crisis that hit the world economy after the autumn of 2008, will still prevail.