Stagnation as Silent Death

“If you don't grow, you die instantly”

“Japan as number one. We became one of the richest countries in the world. We had nothing to fear. The people and the politicians thought it was the case. However, it was just a temporary bubble economy. As soon as the inflated bubble beyond its substance burst entering the 1990s, the Japanese economy began to shrink rapidly. The Nikkei average stock price, which hit a high of 38,915 yen at the end of '89, plummeted to nearly half in just over nine months. The land prices in large urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka also fell rapidly. At that point, the Japanese should have awakened from the dream and made up their minds. They should have needed to take the first step towards the future by restructuring companies with excess debt and employees, reconfiguring the old industrial structure, and actively paying the price of the bubble. However, Japan did not do that.”