ABSTRACT
By the early 2000s, after more than a decade of economic stagnation, powerful pressures had built up for change in Japan, particularly to institutions, policies and practices regarded as obstacles to economic growth. Koizumi Junichirō, newly installed as prime minister in April 2001, seized the opportunity to launch a wide-ranging program of economic reform. More than eight years later, with the Japanese economy once again in the doldrums, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) led by Hatoyama Yukio came to power, espousing its own comprehensive program of reform.
