The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 8, 2010
Japan is mired in an economic downturn. Although there are some glimmers of an economic recovery, there is no end in sight to the ever-worsening "decade of deflation." The nation's finances are on the verge of bankruptcy due mainly to dole-out measures championed by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Japan cannot escape this crisis unless the government halts these measures and unleashes a policy that will revive the economy and promote growth.
The Yomiuri Shimbun--including reporters from our Editorial Bureau, Editorial Board members and Yomiuri Research Institute members, and with input from outside experts during a series of meetings--has drawn up a five-point emergency proposal for economic revitalization, including cutting the effective corporate tax rate to the 20 percent range and formulating a new international trade strategy.
The Japanese economic downturn and the slump in corporate business performance have reached a critical stage. Gross domestic product per capita, an indicator of a nation's affluence, plunged to 23rd in the world in 2008 from third in 2000.
According to the World Competitiveness Yearbook of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, a management research organ, Japan stood atop the international competitiveness ranking in 1990, but had slumped to 17th in 2009.
[...]
Domestically, deflation--a continual decline in the prices of goods and services--has been strangling the economy for more than a decade since the late 1990s. Japan is the only advanced nation beset by deflation for such a long period. Corporate performances have been stagnant, and the decline in income and employment appears to be never-ending.
Tax revenues are not increasing. Despite this, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government is charging ahead with dole-out policies in the fiscal 2010 initial budget that will require the issuance of national bonds to exceed estimated budget revenue. This is an abnormal situation--and one Japan is experiencing for the first time since the end of World War II.
(Full Text)
There's quite a lot there and most of it makes pretty good sense. Probably too much sense for the DPJ, unfortunately.
