Japan's Great Stagnation and Abenomics (PDF)

Masazumi Wakatabe is Professor of Economics at Waseda University, Japan. Trained as a historian of economics, he has extensively written on economic thought during the past economic crises, and the Japanese economy and economic policy. He has published six books in Japanese, and has published numerous book chapters and academic articles throughout his career in both English and Japanese.

“Masazumi Wakatabe have written the best book to date on the Japanese economic crisis and Shinjo Abe’s campaign to resolve it. … it deserves a wide audience among Japan specialists and general readers alike. … The global financial crisis, like Japan’s great stagnation, is a reminder that macroeconomic analysis needs to be informed by economic history and the history of economic thought. Japan’s Great Stagnation and Abenomics is a textbook example of how this should be done.” (Barry Eichengreen, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Vol. 17, 2015)

"The initiative of 'Abenomics' led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe woke up the Japanese economy, a sleeping lion, to a vigorous growth that drew the attention of international media. Yet, we do not have a systematic account in English of the process by which Abenomics led Japan to recover in a few years after almost two decades of stagnation. Excellently trained in monetary economics and in political economy, Wakatabe provides us an academic study of macroeconomic mechanism, political incentives, and the role of economic ideology behind this magic comeback." - Koichi Hamada, Tuntex Professor Emeritus of Economics, Yale University, USA; Special Advisor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

"In this very good, thoughtful analysis focusing on Japan's mediocre economic performance since 1990, Wakatabe stresses the context in which conflicts between a structured view and a macroeconomic view led to major macroeconomic policy mistakes. From this history, he derives monetary lessons for foreign policy makers. He then provides an interim evaluation of Abenomics." - Hugh Patrick, Director, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School, USA