Falling from grace

摘要

The malaise affecting the Japanese economy is currently shows little sign of improving this side of the millennium. Construction activity is down and orders for new construction machinery have dipped to record lows. The once mighty Japanese industrial base is undoubtedly in serious trouble. The slump in profitability during the first half of 1998 was the worst since the post-oil shock recession of 1975. An example of this was Toshiba and Hitachi, two of the country's leading electronics groups posting.their first losses last year since 1948.