Can We See a Monumental Change in Japan?

The economic challenges and structural problems Japan is facing are enormous, as the economic indicators paint a grim picture: The Japanese debt to GDP ratio is 174%; The Japan’s exports fell 36.5% in July from the year-earlier period; The unemployment rate was an all time high of 5.7% in last July.

In this context, the newly elected prime minister of Japan, Hatoyama has vowed a fundamental reform, as mentioned in the previous post.

Among them, he has promised to trim the powerful bureaucracy, which made the Japan’s economic miracle possible.

In an interview, Hatoyama says “The Democratic Party is, in some sense, jumping into uncharted territory and we want to create the kind of politics in which the politicians take the lead for the people without relying on bureaucrats.”

The Telegraph is echoing his thoughts, as saying the new administration in Japan is targeting the powers of the bureaucracy.

From Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/6206159/New-Japanese-government-declares-war-on-powerful-civil-service.html

If he turns his promises into reality, we might see a real sea change in Japan. It would be also interesting to see how geopolitics would unfold in the Asian region. Hatoyama knows Japan’s power in the Asian region is waning as China has taken center stage in the region and in the world.