The Japanese Economy

The Japanese economy offers not only some interesting and idiosyncratic features, but also key insights into current economic issues in China and the United States. In this course we will start with the devastation of postwar Japan and then ask how the Japanese addressed pressing economic issues. We will analyze the Japanese fiscal, monetary, and trade policies adopted within Japan and explore how these policies reflected and influenced the financial, business, and labor sectors. We will also trace how Japan's success in constructing a low risk, middle-class society eventually precipitated the problems in the 1990’s that remain unresolved. (ECON 0150 and ECON 0155) 3 hrs. lect.