Japan's Economic Dilemma: The Institutional Origins of Prosperity and Stagnation

The Japanese economy, after decades of seemingly unsurpassable competitiveness, experienced a major crisis in the 1990s. Observers of Japan are faced with a challenging question: How can one explain Japan's reversal from stunning prosperity to dismal stagnation? Bai Gao, in this illuminating, comprehensive analysis of Japan's economic story goes beyond other analyses to demonstrate how the same economic institutions could produce both stunning economic success and the slump of the 1990s. By comparing the factors that sustained miracle growth in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s with the factors that led to the bubble economy of the late 1980s, Gao sheds new light on internal tensions in the Japanese economic system and how, finally, they 'burst the bubble' in the 1990s. Those who have been following the lively debate over 'What Became of the Japanese Miracle?' will be rewarded by Gao's richly detailed, historically informed, and multilayered contribution.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; 2. Three theoretical issues; 3. The rise of the coordination and stability principles; 4. Coordination, excessive competition, and the high growth; 5. Stability, total employment, and the welfare society; 6. The roads toward the bubble; 7. The crisis of the welfare society; 8. Epilogue.

Review :
"Offers valuable insights..." American Journal of Sociology "The reader of this book will profit from the author's vast knowledge and his in-depth analysis of the Japanese economy. He also makes good use of the Japanese literature. The explanations given are valuable for students of economic growth in Asia and the world alike... this is an excellent book that deserves attention from economists, sociologists and social policy experts... Its account of the structural and institutional explanations for economic growth and stagnation are highly relevant to the world situation today." Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare "Japan's Economic Dilemma makes a significant contribution to the comparative literature on Japanese political economy. Whether one agrees with its arguments and assessments or not, its theoretically innovative and historically grounded study of the private sector institutions that manage corporate governance and social stability adds an important, and often neglected, dimension to our understanding of the challenges that confront the Japanese economy." American Political Science Review