The Conflict

Japan's economy, which had achieved an almost miraculous rise in the decades after World War II, has been in a prolonged period of slow or no growth since the early 1990s. Some of the same factors that led to its success have led to its failures, particularly the close ties between government and business and the conglomerates of businesses that defy open competition on the market. To correct the situation, the voters have elected a reformer, Koizumi Junichiro. His administration is faced with the daunting task of shutting down the crony system that is carrying some of Japan's financial institutions and businesses in order to, in the long term, make Japan over into a free market...