Kozo Yamamura

The Japanese Political Economy after the "Bubble": Plus Ca Change?

Political and economic developments in Japan in the 1990s have generated a wide range of conflicting views on their significance and implications. Before examining those views, let us briefly review the most recent developments. The decade of the 1990s, which is proving to be neither benevolent nor bountiful, began with the bursting of the bubble. The Nikkei index, at Y38,915 on the final trading day of 1989, began to fall on the first trading day of 1990 and by August 1992 had declined to Y14,309. Land prices tumbled no less precipitously. The market value of stocks and land plunged at an average rate of more than Y10 trillion per month between January 1990 and July 1992. Over this 30-month period, the owners of these assets lost more than Y320 trillion (or approximately

Buddhism in the Kamakura period

2.5 trillion at prevailing exchange rates). The massive loss in the value of assets caused the tumid economy to stagger. The real growth rate fell from 3.1 per cent in 1991 to 0.4 per cent in 1992, dropped further to 0.2 per cent in 1993, and remained pallid in 1994 (0.5 per cent).2 In these three years, the bankruptcy rate rose month after

The Economic Analysis of the Japanese Firm

INTRODUCTION Buddhism has had a long and illustrious history in Japan, but it was in the Kamakura period that Buddhism in Japan came into full flower. The forms of Buddhism that emerged at that time – Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren – were largely responsible for the dissemination of Buddhist beliefs and practices throughout Japanese society. The success of this movement lay in tailoring the ideas and goals of Buddhism to the concerns of the populace at large. Hence, Kamakura Buddhism, as the entire religious movement is called, has left an indelible mark on Japanese history and has made Buddhism a lasting and pervasive component of Japanese culture. Buddhism originated in India and spread to China about four centuries after the time of the historical Buddha Sākyamuni (ca. fifth to fourth century, b.c. ). It was transmitted to Japan from China via the Korean peninsula around the middle of the sixth century. The cultural gulf that existed at that time between Japan on the one hand and China and Korea on the other was considerable. Japans ruling class accepted Buddhism as the embodiment of an advanced and superior civilization, and in order to gain control over the concepts and technology that Buddhism brought to Japan, the elite provided a succession of large temples where Buddhism could put down roots. A community of priests supported by the state and the aristocracy belonged to each of these temples. Japan absorbed Buddhism as a comprehensive and advanced cultural medium from the outside but did not, at first, give substantial weight to its religious concerns per se.