Word: koizumis
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...JAPAN'S REFORM FAILS--AGAIN The country is in its second decade of economic paralysis. Consumers aren't buying much. Bankers aren't lending much. The government is deep in hock. The only hope of escaping this mess is represented by Japan's newest Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who is determined to administer economic shock therapy. Koizumi promised he would slash government spending, compel major banks to speed up disposal of bad loans--estimated at nearly $1 trillion--allow unprofitable companies to go bankrupt and restructure the economy to make it more market oriented...
...Japan faced critical elections last weekend that will help determine how successful Koizumi will be. "Odds are Koizumi will fail to get through most of his reforms," says Behravesh. "It's an ugly scenario for Japan and for the U.S." Why will he fail? Many in the Japanese parliament are worried that the medicine will be too harsh. Indeed, some analysts predict that this PM won't be around long. "Koizumi is trying single-handedly to take on the Old Guard of the Liberal Democratic Party and one way or another, he's going to get knifed," says Sean Callow...
...With bankruptcies come unemployment, a much dreaded prospect in Japan, where being jobless is regarded as profoundly shameful. Experts say that with Koizumi's reforms, joblessness could soar to double its current rate in no time. Heizo Takenaka?the academic Koizumi appointed to head up economic policy?is well aware that his boss's political life may hinge on unemployment figures: jobless people make angry voters. That is why, he recently told TIME, reforms must not take longer than two to three years; that is how long his administration figures people are willing to endure the suffering. Takenaka says...
...Getting that sort of rise out of the market?or from Japanese consumers?today would take a little magic. What's certain is that Koizumi cannot depend on the smoke and mirrors favored by his predecessors. For most of the past decade, Japan has stuck like rust to its failed formula for growth, shoveling public funds into ludicrous projects like unneeded dams and highways to nowhere. Not only did the government tap tax revenues for these projects, but also pensions and the $10 trillion in personal savings kept in accounts at the post office. Japanese have had enough of that...
...Just how much are Japanese willing to suffer? Yukinobu Karasawa, a 27-year-old salaryman, mulls over the question as he shops for Koizumi goods?posters, T-shirts, cell-phone straps?at the Tokyo LDP headquarters. "I support his reforms," he says, "but if they begin to hurt me, I might have to reconsider." Then it will be the Prime Minister who feels the pain...