Prof Kenji Aramaki (Tokyo Woman's Christian University & University of Tokyo)

This talk, which is based on Professor Aramaki's new book of the same title, examines the struggles of the Japanese economy over the last 30 years, analyzing in detail the formation of the huge economic bubble in the 1980s, its collapse at the beginning of the 1990s, and subsequent two decade long economic stagnation and chronic deflation, with the aim of identifying the mechanism of such processes and drawing lessons for future economic policy management. It also assesses the comprehensive policy efforts called “Abenomics” under the current Abe administration. As the Abe administration has entered its third term and has two and a half more years to complete its goal of reviving the Japanese economy, it is timely to revisit the long stagnation of the Japanese economy and assess how far PM Abe's mission has been achieved.

Speaker Biography:

Kenji Aramaki is Professor of International Finance at the Department of Economics of Tokyo Woman's Christian University and Professor Emeritus at University of Tokyo. Professor Aramaki has has worked as a Japanese government official for nearly 30 years and taught at the University of Tokyo for more than 10 years. He worked as economist at the IMF in the 1980s and was a visiting professor at SOAS from 2014 to 2015. His main research interest includes international financial crises and the Japanese economy.

Speaker: Prof Kenji Aramaki (Tokyo Woman's Christian University & University of Tokyo), Machiko Nissanke (SOAS)

Released by: SOAS Economics Podcasts