While some of this decline will be mitigated by acceleration in the extension of the worklives of the existing population, the near term impact could be devastating. Exports need to go somewhere. That was fine as long as Japan was the only country in that aperture, but now it is joined by Korea, China, and Taiwan. Japan's consumers are constrained. They are hobbled by a system that lets corporations charge extortionist prices at home and low prices abroad.
Corporations can support low external prices by charging extremely high domestic prices.
They can keep wages low. They can enforce lifetime employment by failing to hire people that want to change companies. Any country that doesn't promote the individual will grow slower than it could. Which over time is the difference between wealth and relative poverty. This site is using the Default theme.