Word: japanism
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...helps as well that the soft-spoken and French-fluent minister seems incapable of making enemies. Though relations between South Korea and Japan are worse today than they have been in decades, Japanese diplomats generally like the 62-year-old Ban himself. That matters, as Japan is currently holds one of the 10 rotating seats on the Security Council. Ban has also received enthusiastic support from Australia. But the deciding vote will likely be cast by China, one of the Council's five veto-wielding permanent members. If the South Korean is viewed by Beijing as too close to Washington...
...Southeast Asia and China are already two of our largest strategic partners,” he said, adding that “South Korea and Japan are among the largest investors in our country...
...Japan's rapid aging is a daunting challenge to Abe's growth targets. Because Japan was operating far below full capacity in 2002, a big spurt of demand could produce good growth figures for a while as the economy got back to full capacity. The government says full capacity has now been reached, and going forward, sustaining growth will be tougher. The working-age population will fall by around 0.7% during 2005-2010 and 1.1% during 2010-2015. Not only will each worker have to support more retirees as a result, the only source for GDP growth will be productivity...
...Future reforms must tackle Japan's "dual economy," i.e. an efficient export-oriented sector but woeful inefficiencies in large parts of the domestic economy, such as food processing, home construction and many service sectors. A chief cause of this weakness is insufficient competition, either from homegrown firms or from imports. Japan has initiated many reforms in recent years to induce efficiency and profitability. These range from the financial "Big Bang" to a series of accounting reforms. There have also been a lot of mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs. Some have led to greater efficiency, but others to less competition...
...risk now is that the government and firms may believe that corporate reform has gone far enough. In reality, Japan needs to do more to spur fiercer competition at home, as well as to attract more foreign investment and imports. All of that will have to take place in a new political climate. Growing income inequality and a rising poverty rate have become big issues. Some opponents of reform blame this on Koizumi's alleged "market fundamentalism." In fact, the trend began two decades ago-though it has intensified in recent years. Abe's challenge is to combat inequality...