Japan Economy Information

Factual Questions
1

Can anyone help me find a site that gives a good, non-dumbed-down explanation of Japan’s current economy, and the causes behind both the good and bad points, maybe over the last decade? I searched on Google, but it’s very difficult to find exactly what I’m looking for with all the pages for children and pages for communists that I keep finding. I’m hoping for something akin to the Economist’s articles, but I can’t get an online subscription to them yet.

Thanks!

(Note that this is not homework. I read the Economist every week or so in the library, and found the information available interesting, thus fueling a desire to research more.)

2

To eliminate the pages for children and communists, the secret Google word appears to be “overview”, as in “japan economy overview”.

http://www.asiaondemand.com/money/economics/japan.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/jp/jp_overview.html

Government Page O’ Links.
http://www.fe.doe.gov/international/japan.html

Somebody’s lecture notes. If you read The Economist, you might like it. :smiley:
http://econ.ucsc.edu/faculty/hutch/Econ149/ItoLecture.pdf

3

Paul Krugman has also devoted some time to this…go to Japan section of the pkarchive:
http://www.pkarchive.org/

4

If you would like to see an analysis of what has happened to Japan’s economy over the past decade or so (e.g. the Nikkei 225 just hit a 20-year low earlier today), I would suggest you take a look at a recent publication from the Federal Reserve Board titled Preventing Deflation: Lessons from Japan’s Experience in the 1990s.

If you are looking for current news with regard to Japan’s economy, you really can’t beat The Economist, IMO. Also, The Financial Times is a very good source.