ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the mechanisms of the malfunctioning of Japans capital accumulation regime since the watershed year of 1998, and gives perspectives for countermeasures. The financial crisis merely triggered the malfunction of the capital accumulation regime. The capital accumulation regime started malfunctioning through its inherent mechanism. As macro-indicators show the current malfunction of the accumulation regime, let us check the declining nominal GDP in absolute terms since 1998, continuing deflation, and the persistently high unemployment rate. The old and new social institutions of the employment regime have made management choose the lowest wage strategy possible and transformed the distribution regime. Abnormality of the distribution regime adversely affected the production regime. The process of seeking a new system was activated by various social conflicts functioning as triggers.
