ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that Abe is implementing Abenomics by adopting the same trick that Koizumi, his mentor, used in his neoliberal reforms. It explains the "stock market populism" and the recent literature on populism, finance capitalism, and global finance. Japanese capitalism has changed from communitarian capitalism with long-term horizons to an Anglo-Saxon-type capitalism with short-term horizons. The chapter describes how Koizumi invented stock market populism and its relation with the liberalizer's political dilemma. It reports the underlying changes in political and economic conditions throughout the past few decades that led to the birth of stock market populism. The chapter discusses whether Abe is merely repeating his mentor's political trick of stock market populism through his implementation of Abenomics. In Europe and the US, settlements between organized workers and employers constituted the foundation for their post-war Keynesian policy regimes, and politically, social democratic and conservative parties adopted similar economic programs.
