As in America, they hope, a surge in IT investment may be about to deliver many years of productivity-rich growth in Japan. Others see a parallel with America in the 1970s and 1980s, as Japan becomes more serious about deregulation, financial reform and opening up to more foreign competition. Yet the pessimists refuse to be persuaded. So, they argue, has Japan, but for the opposite reason. What is more, Japan's inherent vices become all the more glaring when set beside American virtues.
American businesses face the discipline of competitors and shareholders.
Japanese firms hide from both. There are certainly grounds for microeconomic concern. Having flirted with deregulation in the mid-1990s, Japan seems to be wavering a bit. Deregulation of the retail industry is threatened by a new law, to be administered by local governments, that may allow small shop owners to block the expansion of big retailers in their neighbourhoods. The banking clean-up has also run into the sands.