The Contemporary Japanese Economy: An Overview

This volume provides a concise introduction to the workings of Japan's economy today. Using both macro- and microeconomic tools of analysis, the author, an eminent scholar and advisor on monetary policy, outlines the characteristics and activities of both the public and the private sectors. Rather than emphasizing Japan's "unique" features and their effect on economic processes, he uses the standard concepts of savings, investment, and productivity to analyze the behavior of markets and the roles of households, corporations, and government.
Beginning with an outline of Japan's economic growth and development from the 1860s, when modernization began, to the 1990s, Prof. Tachi describes the shift away from "development-orientation" that is taking place in a nation adjusting to a new world order and to the bursting of the prosperity bubble of the 1980s.
Placing today's economic issues - social security, taxes, structural changes, prices of goods and services - in historical perspective, this volume also looks at where Japan's economy is headed. As a concise, yet comprehensive introduction, it will be useful to readers with both scholarly and practical interests in Japan the economic giant.

Ryuichiro Tachi is Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo and Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.