The Japanese economy has been persistently sluggish over the past three decades, following the bursting of the 1980s economic bubble. The country seems to have been caught in economic and financial stagnation, incapable of reviving its growth and competitiveness. To deal with this situation, the Abe administration has implemented bold monetary and other policies as part of its so called ‘Abenomics’ strategy, but economic growth remains subdued.

In this seminar, Professor Kenji Aramaki will discuss the main reasons for Japan’s long-term stagnation and analyse the most prominent limitations of the ‘Abenomics’ policies. Professor Sébastien Lechevalier will then reveal the main challenges still faced by Japan on the productivity front, and provide a set of policy recommendations that could aid growth.

About the contributors

Professor Kenji Aramaki
Professor Kenji Aramaki is Professor of International Finance at the Department of Economics of Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo. He worked as a Japanese government official for nearly 30 years, and taught at the University of Tokyo for over 10 years. He worked as an economist at the IMF in the 1980s and was a visiting professor at SOAS, University of London, from 2014 to 2015. His main research interests include international financial crises and the Japanese economy.

Professor Sébastien Lechevalier
Professor Sébastien Lechevalier is a Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, and President of Fondation France Japon de l’EHESS (EHESS Paris 日仏財団). A specialist in the Japanese economy, he is the author of several books and articles, including The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism (2014, 2015) and Abenomics: has it worked? Will it ultimately fail? (Japan Forum, 2017). He is currently the principal investigator of a research programme entitled “Understanding Institutional Change in Asia: a comparative perspective with Europe” which is a cooperation between EHESS, Oxford University, Free University Berlin and Waseda University. Other research interests include inequality, innovation, and industrial dynamics.

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