ABSTRACT
The Japan, Inc. paradigm leaves behind a bankrupt legacy of profligate spending, a damning indictment for a system often lauded for responsible and effective economic management. As of 2010, Japan has a total public debt amounting to about 200% of GDP, highest by far in the OECD, a result of successive counter-cyclical government-spending packages aimed at stimulating recovery and rescuing the financial sector from insolvency. For a nation that enjoyed double-digit growth and minimal unemployment throughout the miracle years discussed in Chapter 4, growth has sputtered while unemployment and a sense of insecurity have sky-rocketed. This crisis, combined with the rash of corruption scandals discussed in Chapter 9, has discredited the government and aroused the ire of a people who are known for their stoic patience and fortitude in the face of adversity. They expressed their impatience with the powers that be at the polls in 2007 and 2009 when they voted the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) out of power and handed government to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), perhaps less in
hope than with a certainty that it could do no worse. The DPJ mobilized their anxieties and rode their desperation into power.
