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Japan today is caught up in chronic economic crisis, its financial system wracked by record-breaking bankruptcies and its companies hobbled by bad balance sheets, overproduction, and weak consumer demand. In turn, Japan's faltering fortunes have sent shock waves across Asia, triggering the collapse of economies in South Korea, Thailand, and other Asian countries that followed its model for rapid growth and development. While a growing chorus of Japanese politicians, business leaders, and economic analysts blame the current troubles on the misguided policies of Japan's Ministry of Finance, the root of Japan's malaise lies more fundamentally in the contradictory relationship that first made it an economic powerhouse: the combination of businesses that aggressively compete for profits in the best tradition of free enterprise with a government bureaucracy that controls the economy with a heavy thicket of regulation and guidance. And so far, despite ringing declarations of reform, the entrenched bureaucracy shows little willingness -- or ability -- to make the significant reforms that Japan (and its Asian economic disciples) needs to recover. In this book, a cross-section of Japanese, American, and European journalists and authorities in the business, political, and economic sectors examine the problems caused by over-regulation, and offer solutions for reshaping the Japanese marketplace. In Part One, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Vice Minister of Finance Eisuke Sakakibara, and some of America's and Japan's leading experts on the Japanese economy map out the long road to regulatory reform. They analyze the postwar origins of today's bureaucracy, current attitudes toward regulation among politicians and the public, and the changes in both policymaking and mind set that must occur to achieve true reform. Part Two focuses on the

An overview of developments in the Pacific Basin, which have led to the beginning of a "Pacific Community". The author identifies six common denominators that account for the rise of the Pacific Basin idea: modern advances in telecommunications and transportation; the high rate of saving and investment in Asian-Pacific countries; agricultural development; export-directed economies; free market economies; and relative political stability. Although economic growth has recently leveled off, the economic, cultural, and political ties that have been established should help in the positive development of the Pacific Basin idea. (Internat. Polit. Science Assoc.)

In diesem Beitrag werden die Gründe für den wirtschaftlichen Erfolg Japans beschrieben. Dazu zählen auf der wirtschaftlichen Seite die frühzeitige Anwendung der "angebotsorientierten Wirtschaft" und das auffälligste Merkmal des japanischen Kapitalismus: die langfristige Investition in Menschen. Der japanische Kapitalismus unterscheidet sich in wesentlichen Elementen vom amerikanischen Kapitalismus, der gleichwohl als Vorbild diente. Weitere Ausführungen betreffen neben sozialhistorischen, kulturellen, religiösen (konfuzianischen) Aspekten Fragen der Arbeitsmoral, der Arbeitsorganisation und des Managements unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der in Japan geltenden sittlichen Grundsätze. (NG)