Japanese Economy
The Japanese economy is the second largest in the world, behind only the American economy. As such, its decade long downward slide has many lessons the American economy can learn from. The difference between the economies is one of degree, not type. Our own economy has been faltering of late, bringing fear of recession. The Japanese have been on that road for over ten years, and of late have been making aggressive moves towards a restructuring. This paper will look at the types of reforms planned in the Japanese economy, and more importantly if these reforms will be enough to pull a modern economy from the doldrums.
The current state of the Japanese economy has much to do with a failure to adjust. In post-WWII Japan the country's economy experienced a "bubble economy". This era of high growth is very similar to that which the American economy experienced after WWII. A booming population and a new focus on industry were mostly responsible for the unprecedented growth in both countries. In the mid-1980's, Japan's central bank reduced prime interest rates in response to what was then considered a moderate slowing. This lowering wasn't enough to give the economy a chance at sustained growth, as it wasn't combined with robust reform. Japanese banks took advantage of the low rates, and began taking on massive debt. The slowdown never truly stopped, though there were quarters of greater growth. Though the economy grew by one percent on average, the combination of out of control debt and little population growth led the economy down a path of ever slowing growth. Today this debt, coupled with distrust of banks by depositors, has held back even the most well though out and well intentioned reform. Simply put, no restructuring can lead to real gains if the banks continue to fall behind on debt payments.
In April, the normally optimistic Central Bank of Japan issued a report downgrading its forecast for the Japanese economy, the third straight month it has done so. This was also the first report since September 1995 that the admitted that the economy is in a state of deflation. Deflation is the lowering of prices, and leads to lower corporate profits across the board. Deflation has a crippling effect on an economy, and demands an immediate and strong response. The report attributed this most recent downturn to lower industria...
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...k governor, Masaru Hayami, said growth has come to a standstill because of slowing exports.
Worried about the stagnant economy, the Bank of Japan moved to push interest rates to zero last month. It decided to keep such monetary policy unchanged at a meeting Friday.
Exports have long been the driving force behind Japan's economic growth. But the cooling U.S. economy has dampened demand for Japanese exports.
Japan unveiled an emergency package earlier this month that set a two-year deadline for major banks to dispose of their riskiest bad loans estimated at $104 billion.
The non-performing loans -- a leftover from the collapse of Japan's easy-lending conditions of the late 1980s and early 1990s -- have crippled the nation's economy.
The April report pointed to five key areas of the economy that remain troubled -- industrial output, corporate profitability, business sentiment, employment and housing construction.
Late last year, Japan set a target of 1.7 percent growth for fiscal 2001 through the end of next March. But some economists believe the forecast is too optimistic. For the fiscal year ended last month, the government has set a target of 1.2 percent growth.
Japan has moved on since then. They now have become one of the world's wealthiest countries and one of the United States' most powerful allies. Although Japan was hurting for a while, they overcame their struggles which is testament to how strong the people of Japan are, just ask Tamiko Tamonaga and Sachie Tashima. Word Count: 888
In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.
The city of Virginia recently put a tax on the Elizabeth River Tunnel. The tunnel connects Norfolk and Portsmouth and didn’t develop tolls until February 2014 (Kelly 2014). This new toll forces residents, commuters, and visitors to pay a tax starting from one dollar to four dollars. The recent tunnel tolls added to the mid-town and downtown tunnels in Hampton roads are causing commuters and citizens to make some drastic lifestyle changes. Students and employees are considering changes to their employment and the universities they attend to save time and money as a result of the cost of commuting. If the average toll is two dollars a day, then people are spending about 60 dollars a month. What was once a relatively easy trip for many has become costly in both time and money. Because the addition of the tolls have divided the population into those who agree, and those who disagree; the media has played a large role in promoting the argument against the addition of the tolls. The 60 dollars people spend every month can go towards more than a toll; especially if a person is having very hard times. The tunnel tolls have caus...
This one child policy was introduced in 1979 and constricted Chinese couples to have only one child. However, in rural areas, some of the families are allowed to have a second child if both of the parents are the only child or the first child is a girl or disabled. The policy has meant to reduce the childbirth rate but this policy has lead to forced abortions by the planning officials, giving away baby for adoption online and the imbalanced sex ratio of 116 boys to 100 girls.
Transportation systems are what support the high levels of accumulation and concentration within cities. The bigger the city, the more complex its urban problems are if not properly managed. The largest transportation problems occur when public transportation systems fail to fulfill the many requirements of urban mobility. Urban efficiency is highly dependent on its transportation systems to move consumers, labor, and goods from one point to another. The most outstanding urban transportation issues in the United States are: traffic congestion, longer commuting, inadequacy of public transport, green transportation difficulty, and good distribution (Rodrigue).
The one child policy has had negative effects on China and is causing families to have to limit themselves to only one child. There are major gender imbalances that were caused by people being limited to only one child. As well there not being enough females for males to marry. Also the One child policy goes against the Universal Declaration of Human Right which China is a Signatory. The One-Child Policy overall is not a good thing for China and should be discontinued, for the wellbeing of Chinese residents.
With the one-child policy being enacted in 1979, many wonder what sort of effect that it would have on China. What I believe to be the main effect of this policy, are the negative consequences that subsequently followed after the induction of the Family Planning Policy (one-child policy). Some of these effects include forced abortions, sex ratio differences, infanticide and many more. I think that since these effects are so harsh and so irrefutable, that the negative effects brought on by the one-child policy, have practically destroyed what you could call China’s family life.
With more than 1.3 billion people, China has to think about a solution and find ways to deal with its population explosion. In order to have control over population, in 1970, a policy named China’s One Child Policy was introduced. Mingliang argues that, “China, through the one-child policy, has instituted the most aggressive, comprehensive population policy in the world” (1). This policy limits all families in the Republic of China to have only one child, regardless of the sex: however, within this policy there are some exceptions. It is possible to have two children only if the first child is born with a disability, if parents work in a high risk job, if the couple lives in villages, or if the family is a non- Han, otherwise you are allowed to have only one child. In China, if a family denies this policy, it is penalized by the government. According to Bluett, “these families are slapped with heavy fines and raised taxes and they no longer received free health care because defying the One Child Policy is considered a criminal act” (2). This policy is still effective today, and it has changed the life of the Chinese people in so many ways. China’s one child policy should change because with the implementation of this policy, China has faced a significant gender imbalance, as well as violating basic human rights. Consequently, this policy also has its positive side effects, such as reducing poverty and pushing the government to do something more about women’s rights.
There has been a long history of China’s one child policy, since it was first introduces in 1979 by a Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping (Rosenberg n.p). The law was meant to be temporary and used to control the population; however it is still in use today (Rosenberg n.p). When the policy was first enforced, it only allowed one child per family , but it was recently changed to allow couples to have two children but only if either one of the parents is an only child (William n.p). If ,someone were to break the policy their punishment would result in fines. Forced abortions, abandonment, and infanticide are some of the things people are doing so that they do not have to pay these fines.
...r people leaving the workforce. If something doesn’t change, Japan may not even be able to survive.
China originally created this policy to control the nation's population with hopes to stop wide-spread poverty. The people alone could not solve the problem, so the government decided to intervene, creating the One Child Policy. The law was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit China's population growth, and to conserve resources. The One Child Policy was designed to be temporary; however, it still continues to this day. The policy limits couples to have one child only. Consequences such as: fines, pressures to abort a pregnancy, and even forced sterilization accompanied second or subsequent pregnancies (Rosenberg). The policy was initially more like a voluntary agreement; where families who decided to have only one child would get full benefits for that child. Couples with two kids would get the same benefits as ones with one child if it was authorized by the government. However, couples who decided to have a third child would suffer penalties. The couples who had more than two children had to unde...
O'Bryan, Scott. 2009. Growth Idea : Purpose and Prosperity in Postwar Japan. University of Hawaii Press, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed December 4, 2011).
For formulating a more efficient transport pattern, there are some specific strategies. Firstly, government can encourage people to pay more attention to public transit. The actual data about transit use from most cities indicates that transit use is growing in many cities, in addition, some developed cities have been reducing their car use and pay more attention to the public transport (Newman, 1999). Encouraging urban citizens use more public transit is effective in reducing the quantity of private cars. It is generally known that private cars have brought great pressure on urban traffic. Secondly, government can restrict cars based on the “odd-and-even l...
...er commutes. In analyzing all the traffic congestion policies, I believe this policy alternative will have the greatest impact in reducing traffic congestion. It properly prices the roads in which supply will equal the demand. In addition, it generates revenue for the local government which can mitigate the costs in maintaining the roads and infrastructure.
Never the less these problems have arisen and present a very serious issue for not only our generation but for future generations also. Therefore, changes need to be made in Urban transport.