Japan's Last Chance

Faced with economic stagnation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, most of the world’s rich countries made a fateful choice. They lowered taxes; slashed government regulation in labor, financial, and other markets; opened their economies to global trade and finance; and privatized government functions. Economic historians will probably never fully agree on the magnitude of the consequences of neoliberalism, as it became known. But most concur that the reforms at least contributed to higher inequality, increased economic insecurity, and, at least temporarily, faster economic growth. 

Data crunchers will surely spend the next several decades examining all these claims. Perhaps the best way to understand the effects is to look to a country that missed the neoliberalism boat: Japan. Buoyed by the last spurt of its postwar catchup growth, Japan managed to sail through the 1980s without having to face hard choices about the structure of its economy. As