By Abraham Ko
Economics 332
October 22, 2014
ABENOMICS
Japan, as a country, has been the prime example of what most economists refer to as the East Asian Miracle. A small island country centered on isolationist policies during the early 19th century, Japan first opened its doors to economic world trade with the arrival of Commodore Perry and his “Black Ships.”(US Navy Museum 2014) Although small in size, and low in resources, Japan saw the power and might of its Western contemporaries and aimed to follow in their footsteps. Near the end of the 20th Century, Japan was officially recognized as an economic superpower throughout the world. However, growth never lasts forever and by the 1990s, Japan’s economy had come to a grinding halt due to a massive collapse in both the real estate and stock markets of the Japanese economy and remains in a recession that has lasted till now.
As Japan looked to face another year of stagnant growth of the economy, Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, decided enough was enough. With the assistance of the new governor of the Bank of Japan, Shinzo Abe embarked on a radical economic plan that focused on three arrows of design. The arrows depict the strategy of Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” program in which it focuses on fiscal stimulus, monetary easing, and structural reforms. (International Monetary Fund 2013) It is almost near the two year mark since the implementation of Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” program has begun. Although typically, economic effects of governmental policies require years to fully see the effects, “Abenomics” was designed as a jumpstart program with future decisions dependent on the immediate aftereffects of implementation. With the initial completion of the first two arrows of the “Abenomics” economic program and the implementation of the third arrow of structural reforms of the Japanese economy, labor, and tax