Tackling Japan’s Fiscal Challenges

Tackling Japan’s Fiscal Challenges
Author: Keimei Kaizuka
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2006-07-04
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1137001569

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This book examines how Japan should cope with fiscal challenges, as demands on the budget from an ageing society have necessitated the reigning in of public debt and the revamp of the pension and healthcare systems. It combines insights from academic research with the views of policymakers to distil key issues that need to inform public debate.

Japan's Medium

Japan's Medium
Author: K. Okamura
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 30
Release: 1996-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 145185367X

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This paper assesses the sustainability of Japan’s fiscal position. The simulations indicate that, even if the government’s pension reform plan is fully implemented, the initial budget imbalance, combined with pressures from population aging, would lead to explosive increases in government deficits and debt. Present-value calculations point to a fiscal “gap” of about 4 percent of GDP, indicating the combination of tax increases and/or spending cuts that would be required to generate a sustainable long-run fiscal position. Finally, the paper presents an illustrative package of tax and spending measures that could be implemented to close this gap.

Making Fiscal Policy in Japan

Making Fiscal Policy in Japan
Author: Hiromitsu Ishi
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2000-12-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0191590118

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Making Fiscal Policy in Japan is written for those who want to understand the role and performance of fiscal policy as an integral component of macroeconomic policy, and the attendant effects on economic growth. The case explored here is post-Second World War Japan, but the approach is one of international comparison. Ishi traces and analyses the central features of postwar Japanese fiscal policy and considers the institutional framework and policy objectives which shaped the budget process. The first part of the book provides a detailed overview of the topic, with detailed institutional and empirical information. In particular, the role that government played in Japan's postwar economic growth is explored in depth, with specific focus on the four sub-periods of occupation, rapid economic growth, internationalization, and the bubble economy. Part II explains the basic framework of budgets, the budgetary process in Japan, and fundamental strategies of fiscal authority. It looks in depth at the unique aspects of the balanced budget policy for 1953-65 and then at how financial resources for budgeting were automatically generated in a growing economy. The final part analyses specific policy issues in the public sector, among them human resource development, the ageing population and the social security system, tax incentives for export promotion, the Fiscal Investment and Loan Programme, and intergovernmental grant policy. Ishi argues that the Japanese government has been generally passive in guiding the state's economic activities, using fiscal policy to support the private economy rather than directly to influence the economy through deliberate expenditure and tax policies. The approach has been one of enhancing the market rather than of government intervention.

Restoring Japan's Economic Growth

Restoring Japan's Economic Growth
Author: Adam Simon Posen
Publisher: Peterson Institute
Total Pages: 216
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780881322620

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Criticism of current Japanese macroeconomic and financial policies is so wide spread that the reasons for it are assumed to be self-evident. In this volume, Adam Posen explains in depth why a shift in Japanese fiscal and monetary policies, as well as financial reform, would be in Japan's self-interest. He demonstrates that Japanese economic stagnation in the 1990s is the result of mistaken fiscal austerity and financial laissez-faire rather than a structural decline of the "Japan Model." The author outlines a program for putting the country back on the path to solid economic growth - primarily through permanent tax cuts and monetary stabilization - and draws broader lessons from the recent Japanese policy actions that led to the country's continuing stagnation.

Meeting Fiscal Challenges in Japan's Rapidly Ageing Society

Meeting Fiscal Challenges in Japan's Rapidly Ageing Society
Author: Randall S. Jones
Publisher:
Total Pages: 47
Release: 2019
Genre: Economics
ISBN:

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Abstract: Japan's gross government debt of 226% of GDP in 2018 is the highest ever recorded in the OECD area, and places the economy at risk. The government now aims to achieve a primary surplus by FY 2025. Additional fiscal consolidation, based on a detailed plan covering specific spending cuts and tax increases, is necessary to put the government debt ratio on a downward trend in the face of rapid population ageing. This is a very difficult task and a stronger fiscal framework would help keep policy on track to achieve fiscal targets. Controlling social spending requires making better use of healthcare resources, in p art by reducing overinvestment in hospitals and increasing the use of generic drugs. Another priority is ensuring the sustainability of local government spending, in part by reducing costs through the joint provision of local public services and infrastructure across jurisdictions and the development of compact cities in the context of depopulation in many parts of Japan. Increased revenue should come primarily from hikes in the consumption tax rate, which is among the lowest in the OECD. In addition, disincentives to employment in the tax and benefit system should be removed, as sustained economic growth is crucial to ensure fiscal sustainability. This Working Paper relates to the 2019 OECD Economic Survey of Japan (http://www.oecd.org/economy/japan-economic-snapshot/)

Structural Change in Japan

Structural Change in Japan
Author: Mr. Tamim Bayoumi
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1998-06-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1455227501

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This volume, by Bijan B. Aghevli, Tamim Bayoumi, and Guy Meredith, is based on a seminar on structural change in Japan held in early 1997 and chaired by the IMF's First Deputy Managing Director, Stanley Fischer. Discussion of teh day-to-day management of the standard levers of fiscal and monetary policy is interlinked with consideration for the more deep-seated structural issues. By shifting and destabilizing the underlying economic relationships and creating uncertainty, structural change complicates the task of policy analysis. This volume describes how the IMF is responding to these challenges and how outside experts assess this effect.

The Competition

The Competition
Author: Thomas Pepper
Publisher: Greenwood
Total Pages: 410
Release: 1985
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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Investing Strategies for Alternative Global Markets (Collection)

Investing Strategies for Alternative Global Markets (Collection)
Author: Vishaal B. Bhuyan
Publisher: FT Press
Total Pages: 1214
Release: 2011-08-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0132808471

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3 breakthrough books deliver innovative global investing strategies for today’s radically new market environment Yesterday’s investment strategies won’t cut it any more! This Collection brings together innovative new approaches from three of this generation’s most successful investors: strategies you simply won’t find elsewhere! In Buying at the Point of Maximum Pessimism: Six Value Investing Trends from China to Oil to Agriculture, Lauren Templeton Capital Management’s D. Scott Phillipsreveals today’s secret for earning consistently outsized profits: In times of maximum pessimism, recognize your long-term opportunities, and pounce! Phillips identifies six powerful value investing themes for the 2010s: emerging areas of long-term growth that become even more compelling in volatile or bear markets. In What Would Ben Graham Do Now?: A New Value Investing Playbook for a Global Age, Jeffrey Towson modernizes value investing for high-growth emerging markets, introducing techniques he mastered working for Prince Alwaleed, the “Arabian Warren Buffet.” Building on Ben Graham’s classic focus on price and quality, he integrates crucial values of political access, reputation, and capabilities that are indispensable for modern global investing. Next, he presents practical investment “playbooks” designed to help you profitably navigate tomorrow’s titanic market collisions. Finally, in The Esoteric Investor: Alternative Investments for Global Macro Investors, Vishaal B. Bhuyanreveals immense new investment opportunities hidden in the coming age wave, pension crisis, and today's massive demographic, economic, and regulatory shifts. Discover how to profit from reverse equity transactions, surprising commodities, and longevity risk markets—the $24 trillion market you've never heard of! From world-renowned leaders in alternative global investment, including D. Scott Phillips, Vishaal B. Bhuyan,and Jeffrey Towson

Policy Uncertainty in Japan

Policy Uncertainty in Japan
Author: Ms.Elif C Arbatli
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1484302362

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We develop new economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indices for Japan from January 1987 onwards building on the approach of Baker, Bloom and Davis (2016). Each index reflects the frequency of newspaper articles that contain certain terms pertaining to the economy, policy matters and uncertainty. Our overall EPU index co-varies positively with implied volatilities for Japanese equities, exchange rates and interest rates and with a survey-based measure of political uncertainty. The EPU index rises around contested national elections and major leadership transitions in Japan, during the Asian Financial Crisis and in reaction to the Lehman Brothers failure, U.S. debt downgrade in 2011, Brexit referendum, and Japan’s recent decision to defer a consumption tax hike. Our uncertainty indices for fiscal, monetary, trade and exchange rate policy co-vary positively but also display distinct dynamics. VAR models imply that upward EPU innovations foreshadow deteriorations in Japan’s macroeconomic performance, as reflected by impulse response functions for investment, employment and output. Our study adds to evidence that credible policy plans and strong policy frameworks can favorably influence macroeconomic performance by, in part, reducing policy uncertainty.