C ustomary New Year’s editorials and special features of major newspapers have added to the sense of crisis, raising fears about Japan’s evaporating prominence in the world. O f course, such doom and gloom is nothing unfamiliar in this country. B
ut what is new this time around is the deepening sense of real danger that this may be the start of a long downward trend. T here is no shortage of evidence to this effect: the nation’s shrinking and aging population; its drop in the international ranking of per capita gross domestic product; its shrinking aid to the developing world; the dropping number of Japanese corporations among the world’s major multinationals; worsening public debt, and so on. T he worrying came to a head as a result of, among other things, the plunge of Tokyo share prices in the closing days of 2007 and into 2008. O f concern to many is that the Tokyo market’s decline is steeper than any of the other markets in the world that have been affected by the U.S. subprime meltdown. S
ome argue that Japan’s market has unique vulnerabilities, and as analysts see it, the plunge reflects to a large extent foreign investors' desertion of a Japan that now appears to have poor prospects for growth and prosperity in the future Now, a tug of war is under way between forces demanding more attention to the poor and the weaker segment of the economy, while others advocate relentless pursuit of reform Japan simply cannot afford division of this sort. I t must grow and maintain prosperity. O therwise, it will not be able to solve the problem of the widening income gap. The kinds of policies we should be seeking ought to be geared to reform that will ensure growth and prosperity in the face of globalization, but that will not put undue strain on the weaker sector.
In conclusion I want to notice, that in general, globalization is an inevitable process with its problems and Japanese industry sector must develop in the right way.
List of Literature
Jackson G., Miyajima Π. Varieties of Capitalism, Varieties of Markets: Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan, Germany, France, the UK and USA // RIETI Discussion Paper, 2007
Levitt, Theodore. Globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review, 1983
Mittelman J. H. Globalisation Critical Reflections, Boulder, Colo: Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc, 1996
Stiglitz, Joseph E. Globalisation and its Discontents, New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2002
" The Frontier Within: Individual Empowerment and Better Governance in the New Millennium," Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century. January 2000
http://www.kisc.meiji.Π°Ρ.jp/~yamawaki/gmj/debates.htm Women and Globalization
1 Levitt, Theodore. Globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review, 1983, p.18
2 Stiglitz, Joseph E. Globalisation and its Discontents, New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2002, p.47
3 «The Frontier Within: Individual Empowerment and Better Governance in the New Millennium,» Prime Minister’s Commission on Japan’s Goals in the 21st Century. January 2000.
http://www.kisc.meiji.Π°Ρ.jp/~yamawaki/gmj/debates.htm Women and Globalization
4 Jackson G., Miyajima Π. Varieties of Capitalism, Varieties of Markets: Mergers and Acquisitions in Japan, Germany, France, the UK and USA // RIETI Discussion Paper, 2007, p.23
5 in the same place
