Japan is in the grip of not a financial crisis so much as a crisis of decisiveness. Both the media and opposition parties have behaved recklessly in delaying action by the government to deal with critical problems. Politicians are adrift in the currents of public opinion, and the public, for its part, cannot find the proper criteria for its own decisions. Overemphasis on the need for internationalization has made it hard for the Japanese to determine their own national priorities.
Japan lacks expert economists.
Its population may fall by half over the next 40 years. The imported oil on which the country relies is likely to run out by the second half of the twenty-first century. And the accumulation of unrecycled wastes can be expected to result in a succession of environmental crises appearing out of the blue. During 1999 the Japanese economy should enjoy something of a breather thanks to the heavy dose of government stimulus. But unless financial institutions and business corporations take advantage of this respite to restructure and strengthen their operations, the economy is liable to slip back into critical condition once the effects of the stimulus have worn off.