Japan's Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change (Princeton Paperbacks)

Book Description

At the beginning of the 1990s, a massive speculative asset bubble burst in Japan, leaving the nation's banks with an enormous burden of nonperforming loans. Banking crises have become increasingly common across the globe, but what was distinctive about the Japanese case was the unusually long delay before the government intervened to aggressively address the bad debt problem. The postponed response by Japanese authorities to the nation's banking crisis has had enormous political and economic consequences for Japan as well as for the rest of the world. This book helps us understand the nature of the Japanese government's response while also providing important insights into why Japan seems unable to get its financial system back on track 13 years later.

The book focuses on the role of policy networks in Japanese finance, showing with nuance and detail how Japan's Finance Ministry was embedded within the political and financial worlds, how that structure was similar to and different from that of its counterparts in other countries, and how the distinctive nature of Japan's institutional arrangements affected the capacity of the government to manage change.

The book focuses in particular on two intervening variables that bring about a functional shift in the Finance Ministry's policy networks: domestic political change under coalition government and a dramatic rise in information requirements for effective regulation. As a result of change in these variables, networks that once enhanced policymaking capacity in Japanese finance became "paralyzing networks"--with disastrous results.

Customer Reviews:

A sorely needed update on Japanese financial politics.......2004-09-23

Amyx is one of very few scholars doing the kind of yeoman's work in political science today that is necessary for successfully integrating original source field research with rigorous theoretical analysis. The payoff is the kind of detailed and informed study that made Johnson's MITI and the Japanese Miracle a classic. Amyx's analysis of networks inclusive of the Ministry of Finance provides a rich explanatory framework for policy paralysis over the course of a dozen + years. A particularly interesting insight is that networks (i.e., people) make institutions durable even as institutions structure incentives for individuals. This reinforcing relationship, in Japan's case, led to intransigence and suboptimal outcomes for nearly all parties. I highly recommend this to readers interested in an update on bureaucratic politics in Japan, and those interested in the backstory to the grim headlines on Japan in the financial papers over the last decade. Even as Japan starts its long-delayed turnaround, this book will help readers understand where change is most likely to occur, and where the bottlenecks still exist.

The Political Economy of the Japanese Financial Big Bang: Institutional Change in Finance and Public Policymaking

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The Political Economy of the Japanese Financial Big Bang: Institutional Change in Finance and Public Policymaking
Tetsuro Toya
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0199292396

Book Description

In 1996, the Japanese government introduced a policy package initiating massive deregulation and liberalization in the nation's financial sector, referred to as Japan's financial 'Big Bang.' This book argues that the emergence of the Big Bang Initiative poses numerous challenges to conventional interpretations of Japanese politics and represents a clear case of institutional change in Japanese finance. Whereas many observers stress continuity in Japanese politics, this book argues that the emergence in the 1990s of performance failures and scandals attributed to the bureaucracy, as well as the increase in the likelihood of a change in government in this period, led policymaking patterns surrounding the Big Bang to differ radically from those dominating public policymaking in the past. These developments led to change in the nature of the alliance between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF), to a shift in priorities within the MOF, and to a heightened role for the public in policymaking. The result was that the MOF, long perceived as 'entrenched' and seeking to maximize tangible tokens of organizational power, became more than willing to launch the Big Bang, despite the fact that these reforms would strip the ministry of many of its regulatory tools and sever the ministry's close ties with the financial sector. The book also argues that these new developments prevented financial industry actors from forestalling these reforms, as they had done in the past with other reforms similarly threatening the viability of weaker firms. The findings reveal that not only politicians, but also bureaucrats and interest groups, have reasons to pursue public support to enhance their respective political influence. Consequently, well-organized groups do not always prevail over the unorganized public.

Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan

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Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan
Thomas F. Cargill , Michael M. Hutchison , and Takatoshi Ito
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262032856

Book Description

Japan's financial institutions and policy underwent remarkable change in the past decade. The country began the 1990s with a heavily regulated financial system managed by an unchallenged Ministry of Finance and ended the decade with a Big Bang financial market reform, a complete restructuring of its regulatory financial institutions, and an independent central bank. These reforms have taken place amid recession and rising unemployment, collapsing asset prices, a looming banking crisis, and the lowest interest rates in the industrial world.

This book analyzes how the bank-dominated financial system--a key element of the oft-heralded "Japanese economic model"--broke down in the 1990s and spawned sweeping reforms. It documents the sources of the Japanese economic stagnation of the 1990s, the causes of the financial crisis, the slow and initially limited policy response to banking problems, and the reform program that followed. It also evaluates the new financial structure and reforms at the Bank of Japan in light of the challenges facing the Japanese economy. These challenges range from conducting monetary policy in a zero-interest rate environment characterized by a "liquidity trap" to managing consolidation in the Japanese banking sector against the backdrop of increasing international competition.

Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan.(Book review): An article from: Journal of East Asian Studies

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Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan.(Book review): An article from: Journal of East Asian Studies
Sebastien Lechevalier
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of East Asian Studies, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1003 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan.(Book review)
Author: Sebastien Lechevalier
Publication: Journal of East Asian Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Page: 164(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan
Thomas M./ Hutchison, Michael M Cargill
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OR7B2O

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Superbly written, very practical, with technical excellence and integrity

Designing and Using Organizational Surveys: A Seven-Step Process (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series)
Allan H. Church , and Janine Waclawski
Manufacturer: Pfeiffer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Baldrige User's Guide: Organization Diagnosis, Design, and Transformation

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Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity

ASIN: 0787956775

Book Description

The survey process is a highly complex and situationally dependent one, in need of careful management. If poorly designed and administered, surveys can create disappointment and even disaster. Little has been written so far for those responsible for designing and implementing surveys in organizations. These authors have drawn on their extensive consulting experience to develop a concise, pragmatic, seven-step model covering the entire process, from initiation, to final evaluation, to making the results meaningful to the future of the organization. They pay special attention to the political and human sensitivities concerned and show how to overcome the many potential barriers to a successful outcome.

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Designing and Using Organizational Surveys provides organizational practitioners with a clear and practical working guide to designing and implementing successful organizational surveys. Drawing on their extensive consulting experience, authors Allan H. Church and Janine Waclawski present a concise seven-step model that covers the entire survey process from its conception to evaluation and-perhaps more importantly-to making the results meaningful and achievable for the future of the organization. Their highly pragmatic approach pays special attention to the political and human sensitivities inherent in the process and clearly shows how to overcome the many potential barriers to conducting a successful survey.

Customer Reviews:

Superbly written, very practical, with technical excellence and integrity.......2006-08-10

Church and Waclawski deliver exactly what practitioners needed - a book on how to bring the critical people together to form a team, discover the deeper purpose for going forward, design a technically excellent and user-friendly survey, analyze and report the data, and build on the findings to promote action in the organization. Each chapter contains some very useful political wisdom along with descriptions of the survey process.

With a crystal clear style, the authors explain challenging concepts clearly enough for learners and senior practitioners alike. This book stands out as the most important on the topic today.

In a future edition, I would like to see a special section comparing advanced modeling methods including relative weights analysis. It should make them comprehensible to users who have had some statistics, but aren't stats mayvens.

Book Description

The Great Comet Crash is a record of the spectacular collision between Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the giant planet Jupiter in July 1994. Researchers who were involved in all aspects of observing and interpreting the encounter give personal narratives of the events, from the discovery of the comet through to the dramatic effects on the appearance of Jupiter in the hours, days and months after the collision. The chapters are all by distinguished researchers who personally participated in the international teams who recorded the events. The book is illustrated in colour throughout by the very best images selected from professional observatories around the world. The Great Comet Crash is the definitive illustrated account by professional astronomers of the collision and its consequences.

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Describing how people talk requires recording and analyzing phonetic data. This is true for researchers investigating the variant pronunciations of street names in Los Angeles, missionaries translating the Bible into a little-known tongue, and scholars obtaining data from a carefully controlled group in a laboratory experiment. Phonetic Data Analysis examines the procedures involved in describing the sounds of a language and illustrates the basic techniques of experimental phonetics, most of them requiring little more than a tape recorder, a video camera, and a computer.This book enables readers to work with a speaker in a classroom setting or to go out into the field and make their own discoveries about how the sounds of a language are made. Peter Ladefoged, one of the world 's leading phoneticians, introduces the experimental phonetic techniques for describing the major phonetic characteristics of any language. Throughout the book there are also comments, written in a more anecdotal fashion, on Ladefoged 's own fieldwork.

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Introduction to Instrumental Analysis
Robert D. Braun
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0070072914

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Introduction to Instrumental Analysis
Robert D. Braun
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFHDCO

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Introduction to Instrumental Analysis
Robert D. Braun
Manufacturer: Pharma Book Syndicate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 8188449156

An introduction to metallurgical analysis: Chemical & instrumental

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An introduction to metallurgical analysis: Chemical & instrumental
S. K Jain
Manufacturer: Distributed by Advent Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007BHEMY

Book Description

Spanning from the Big Bang to the Information Age and beyond goes back to the beginning of time to take the reader on a flowing fascinating journey to our current world and our possible future. Extracting from the realities of today's unprecedented technological growth, ecological imbalance, political strife and emerging social-awareness author Peter Russell supposes that we are on the verge of a major planetary transformation-which in all of human and planetary history has never been so dangerous or promising.

Customer Reviews:

awesome.......2007-06-11

The book arrived very quickly and was in awesome condition. I was impressed!!

The Global Brain awakens.......2006-05-06

There was never a more timely book..
It should be on everyone's wish list!

For summary of the book see Forums

The Global Brain Awakens.......2004-01-19

A beautifully written, wide ranging and thought provoking book. As a trained physicist, Russell distinguishes facts from his ideas. However his extrapolations are very plausible and echo conclusions I had reached myself. They are expressed in a most eloquent and readable style.
This book should be essential reading for all - especially youngsters of every race and religion. The contained message of hope is one of the few chances we have to make the future a better place for all.

A Solid Effort!.......2001-10-02

Not too many philosophers have taken a serious crack at explaining what the advent of the Internet means to the future of human society. While technology takes a back-seat to spirituality in The Global Brain Awakens, author Peter Russell takes all the recent hype about global interconnectivity to a fascinating extreme: The Internet as the central nervous system to a newly evolved global organism. Russell draws parallels between the development of the central nervous system in living organisms and creation of Web communications here on Earth, which he argues is the biggest living organism of them all. Unfortunately, this intriguing line of thought is undermined by the book's conclusion, which collapses into a mire of hokey higher consciousness that lacks the same critical reasoning. We recommend this book to anyone interested in an alternative vision of a Web-enhanced future, provided you are not turned off by its new age clichés.

Your Wake up Call has Arrived!.......2001-03-19

Every so often a book comes along that has the potential to "rock" the very fibre of your being, as well as impact society on a grand scale. This is one of those books! Peter Russell has put together a compelling story of how the "age of consciousness" will swamp the "information age" in comparison. It all starts with learning how to finally tap into that 95% of dead weight brain we carry around. If you are on the path to higher levels of consciousness (and who isn't?), then you will want this book. Guaranteed satisfaction!!

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Cambridge Physics Tripos exam questions prior to 1971.......2003-08-05

This is an out-of-print 2nd edition of a wonderful little booklet of 256 high-quality exam questions plus short answers compended by Prof. Brian Pippard and W.O. Saxton from Part I of the Natural Sciences Tripos exams (undergraduate sophomore and junior years - prior to 1971) at the University of Cambridge. More challenging questions are starred and they require a more mature appreciation of physics principles to solve them.

Example question (#26): "A door consists of a uniform rectangular panel of width b, height h and mass m, strengthened along all four edges by a rectangular frame, also of mass m, that is formed from material of small cross-section. The door is made to swing about a vertical axis along one edge. Where should a door-stop be placed if there is no reaction at the hinges when the door strikes it?"
Answer: b(4b+5h)/[6(b+h)] from axis.

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