ABSTRACT
In the wake of the initial bursting of the bubble in late 1989 Japan’s growth rate slowed to a crawl. This is apparent from Figure 1.1 in Chapter 1 and from the figures in Table A.1 in the Appendix. During the bubble phase and even during the first five years after the bubble began to burst Japan’s per capita income continued to converge towards American levels. However during the next five-year period – between 1996 and 2000 – it diverged.
