日本経済Ⅱ

We start by clarifying the main goals of the course, which is to understand the important issues that the Japanese economy has been facing and to come up with general lessons that are useful for other economies. Then, we study the macroeconomic development of the Japanese economy from the late 19th Century, with particular emphasis on the rapid economic growth in the 1950s to the 1970s followed by a long stagnation from the begging of the 1990s. We also look at institutional aspects of the Japanese economy in labor, finance, and business condition, and how some apparently unique features of Japan have changed overtime. The next to last class (on November 5) that covers the final chapter of the textbook provides a comprehensive review of the lost two decades of the Japanese economy and discuss the lessons for the rest of the world. The final class (on November 9) will discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Japanese economy and speculates on the future of the Japanese economy.

Lectures, but questions and discussions in class are highly encouraged.

Based on the scores of in-class quizzes and homeworks.

Takatoshi Ito and Takeo Hoshi, The Japanese Economy, 2nd Edition. (MIT Press, 2020)

Takeo Hoshi and Anil Kashyap (2001). Corporate Financing and Governance in Japan: The Road to the Future. MIT Press Koichi Hamada, Anil Kashyap, and David Weinstein (Eds.) (2011). Japan’s Bubble, Deflation and Long-term Stagnation, MIT Press

Students are strongly encouraged to ask questions and to participate in class discussion.