TURNING JAPANESE

摘要

Things are finally looking up for Japan, the world's second largest economy and a nation more recently known for recession and persistent deflation.At the tail end of last year, its economy grew at its fastest rate in 13 years. (Quarterly figures were equivalent to seven per cent a year.) Of course, it is not out of the woods yet but Horst Koehler, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, recently reported that Japan's economic prospects have "brightened". He added that its recovery would be driven by business spending and exports to Asia. All this is a far cry from the eighties when the country was riding high on the back of an explosion in asset prices (shares, property and so on) and when its corporate reputation was the envy of the world. During this time, Japanese businesses borrowed heavily and (as it turns out) unwisely to fund their rapid expansion. This meant that when the "bubble economy" burst in the early nineties, the weaknesses of its industries were left exposed for all the world to see.