Some critics worry that his feel-good policymaking is only staving off critical adjustments that will have to be made later. And that doesn't include a new, Yen18 trillion stimulus package announced on November 11. Obuchi's latest package both allocates more funds for the loan-guarantee programme and expands it to more companies. That worries Ed Lincoln of the Brookings Institution in Washington, formerly a special adviser to the U.S. ambassador to Japan. The government has been pursuing a policy for the past year or so to prop up small businesses.
Japan needs a lot of restructuring.
He brought us back from the brink. Still, economists say much of the spending is misdirected into construction projects that won't generate much future growth. Critics say it would be better to cut taxes so as to give the money back to consumers, whose weak spending impedes a return to self-sustaining economic growth. Meanwhile, despite Obuchi's best efforts, unemployment seems sure to rise as more and more companies jettison once-hallowed lifetime employment. Indeed, political calculus and marketplace realities may be moving in separate directions.