Kyoji FUKAO The Structural Causes of Japan ' s " Two Lost Decades

The "lost decade" is a term popularly used to describe the Japanese economy of the 1990s, the period following the bursting of the country’s economic bubble. Yet even after the problems of nonperforming bank loans and damaged balance sheets were corrected in the early 2000s, growth has not been able to return to the level of the pre-bubble era. This has prompted Faculty Fellow Kyoji Fukao and his colleagues to call the period since the bursting of the bubble the "two lost decades," analyzing Japan’s structural problems from a long-term perspective. The U.S. economy enjoyed steady growth during the 1990s and 2000s, with sharply increased lab or pro duc tivit y through information and communications technology (ICT) innovations. In contrast, ICT investment in Japan has been surprisingly limited. Leading companies have been increasing total factor productivity (TFP) through aggressive R&D and internationalization since the mid-1990s. Prof. Fukao points out that to exit its long period of economic stagnation, Japan needs to make changes that would allow productive companies to expand their market share, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to increase productivity. Professor Fukao’s expertise includes international economics, macroeconomics, international trade and direct investment in Asia, innovation and total factor productivity. He obtained an M.A. in Economics from the Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo. Prior to his current position from 1999, he served as an associate professor at the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University and a lecturer for the Department of Economics, Seikei University. He concurrently serves as a chief research fellow of the Asian Study Division, Japan Center of Economic Research (JCER) and a member of the Statistics Commission, Cabinet Office (Deputy Commission Chair). Major works: Productivity and Japan's Economic Growth: Industry-Level and Firm-Level Studies Based on the JIP Database (co-editor : T. Miyagawa), University of Tokyo Press, 2008. sssPersonal Data Researchdigest