Such increasing hysteria is dangerous folly. Japan's economic woes are not a trade problem, and should not be treated as such. In particular, a weak Japan didn't cause the Asian crisis, and a stronger Japan won't fix it. All our breast-beating can accomplish is to stir up ill will between our countries and give aid and comfort to forces, both here and in Japan, that profit from trade tensions. A recession, and perhaps a serious one, is now under way.
Unemployment is at record highs.
A black hole of bad debt has sucked the life out of the banking system. And those are just the short-term problems. The deeper structural flaws of the Japanese system are even more daunting. Japan's whole system for allocating capital is broken. The rate of return on capital has now fallen below that in Europe and is less than half the U.S. rate.