the current state of japan's economy since they have a deeply - entrenched negative image of the bubble burst and deflation as well as the current declining and aging population. thus, i will elaborate on the positive changes in japan's economy, in the hope that you will better understand the masazumi wakatabe, " japan's economy and monetary policy, " speech at a meeting with business leaders in aomori, june 27, 2019, http : / / www. boj. or. jp / en / announcements / press / koen _ 2019 / ko190627a. htm /. current situation. on that basis, i will also talk about the challenges. i personally think that economic growth and price stability can be achieved even given the structural problem of a declining and aging population. that said, it is true that there are many challenges to be tackled beforehand. i would like to share my opinions on these challenges, which should be addressed with a view to ensuring further strength in japan's economy. i. achievements and changes i would like to talk about what kind of positive changes have taken place in japan's economy, by comparing the situation now with the " lost two decades " or under deflation. a. improvement in people's lives first, let us take a look at changes in household income as a whole ( chart 5 ). nominal disposable income did not increase for a long time following the late 1990s. during this period, real disposable income, adjusted for inflation, increased moderately because prices continued to decline somewhat. however, households could not feel the increase in their income as nominal disposable income did not increase. since the mid - 2010s, there has been a notable change, as disposable income has increased clearly in both nominal and real terms. how have people perceived this change ( chart 6 )? in a public opinion survey, people were asked how satisfied they are with their current lives. the proportion of respondents answering that they were satisfied declined clearly from the late 1990s, to a level below that in the 1980s. however, it has increased notably since the early 2010s, and recently registered a record high. this improvement in people's satisfaction with their lives is likely due to an increase in their income stemming from economic improvement. in fact, in the same public opinion survey, the proportion of respondents answering satisfied with their income also rose significantly. to see how far economic improvement has

october 4, 2019 bank of japan has japan's economy changed? : challenges and prospects speech at the japan society in new york ( new york, october 3 ) masazumi wakatabe deputy governor of the bank of japan introduction it is a great honor to have the opportunity to speak to you here at the distinguished japan society. has japan's economy changed? my answer is both yes and no. the economy has been changing in a positive manner, but the change is far from over. i would like to talk about changes in japan's economy and its challenges from a somewhat longer - term perspective. " because japan has experienced decades - long stagnation, today's society is a very difficult place to live for you. " this comes from a children's educational comic book published in august 2013. 1 this phrase reflects the general mood back then, when the economy was under prolonged stagnation. about 30 years have passed since the early 1990s, when the asset price bubble collapsed in japan. looking back, this 30 - year period can be roughly divided into three separate decades. in the first decade, aggregate demand fell after the collapse of the bubble economy, the so - called " three excesses " of corporate debt, production capacity, and employment materialized, and attention was drawn to the nonperforming loan problem of financial institutions. in the following decade, although the disposal of nonperforming loans proceeded on course, the economic growth rate remained low. also, deflation became a problem, with the annual cpi inflation rate staying in negative territory. these two decades are sometimes called japan's " lost two decades. " and the last decade is the period from the early 2010s up to the present. as there has been lively discussion on why japan's economy remained stagnant for such a long time as the " lost two decades " after the collapse of the bubble economy, i will not go into detail. 2 instead, as an introduction, i would like to discuss japan's declining and aging miyazoe ikuo and taira takahisa, shogakukan - ban gakushu manga 2 nishida kitaro : sekai ni eikyo o ataeta nihonjin hatsu no tetsugakusha, comp. nishida kitaro museum of philosophy ( tokyo : shogakukan inc., 2013 ), p. 15. for my view, see masazumi wakatabe, japan '