Macroeconomics Case Study

Japan: Employing the Unemployed

OR

Abstract: After the World War II, Japan focused all its efforts on its economy. The country’s gross domestic product grew by stunning rates in the 1950s and 1960s, and continued as the world’s second largest through the 1980s. In the ‘lost decade’ that followed, it seemed as though the ‘Japanese miracle’ was being dismantled by the long-lasting recession in the economy. As downturns in the economy reflected surges in the unemployment rates, measures to create employment had become a key issue in government policy, especially in the wake of increasing corporate restructuring.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To study the difference between classical and Keynesian employment
• To understand the relationship between unemployment and inflation through Phillips curve
• To analyse the different phases of business cycle and changes in the economic growth
• To study the factors responsible for recession in Japan.

Keywords : Japan; Economic recession; Unemployment; Employment measures; Lost decade; Structural reforms; Corporate restructuring; Deregulation; Ageing population; Outplacement firms; Labour; International Monetary Fund (IMF)